Sleep No More
by LEva114
Summary: After the horrific and senseless murder of his best friend, Link struggles to hold onto his fast-slipping sanity in a new, unforgiving world where hallucinations dog his every move, visions haunt his waking moments, and nightmares have a bad habit of coming true. Modern AU, hints of LxZ, rated T for violence, gore, language, and disturbing imagery - might veer close to M sometimes.
1. Camera Flash

**Warning: Character death, language, and slight gore ahead. I say slight because it's only the aftermath. Your mileage may vary.  
**

**I don't own Zelda. If I did, everyone would probably die. Multiple times.**

* * *

Link slowly blinked awake, squinting at the faint, pinkish light that filtered in through the curtains on the window. He turned and looked at the clock, groaning when he saw the time.

Six o' clock. In. The. Morning. Link tried never to be awake before noon if he could help it. He almost rolled over and went back to sleep, but something caught his eye amongst all the crap scattered randomly on the wooden table next to his bed. The screen on his phone was lit up urgently, and he saw notifications scrolling down the display. His brow furrowed. He didn't remember falling asleep with his phone like that; he always checked it before he turned it silent and went to bed. Link sat up a little, shivering at the slight chill in the air as it brushed against his bare chest. He propped himself up, then fell on his back, holding his phone about an inch away from his face. Link waited for the glowing screen to swim into focus, and when it did, his frown deepened. There were three calls and three separate voicemails, all from one of his best friends, Zelda. The first one came at two am, just an hour after he had gone to bed. He tapped the screen, then held it up to one ear, raking a hand through his blonde hair as he stared up at the ceiling.

The voicemail opened with a shaky breath, then Zelda's smooth voice, tinny through the receiver, started to talk quickly.

"Hey Link, as soon as you get this, call me back. I think there's someone outside my house." The voicemail ended with another sigh and a click. His blue eyes, which had drifted closed as he listened, now snapped open in shock. He quickly pulled the phone away from his ear, gave it an incredulous glance, then swung his legs around and hopped out of bed. Link clicked on the other voicemail and set it to speaker while he picked up a shirt to pull on. The voice on the other end of the phone was now panicked and high pitched, and he froze with his arms through the sleeves of the shirt.

"Link, oh sweet Nayru, please get over here. I swear, someone's lurking outside my house!" There was the sound of a curtain being pulled back and a cautious glance being shot out the window. "I called the police, but they said I was just tired and seeing things, and that they weren't coming over, but Link, I swear..." There was a sniff, then a deep, anxious swallow. "Please come over. I don't feel safe." There was another click, and Link hurriedly finished pulling on his shirt, grabbing a pair of jeans off the floor and wriggling into them. He padded out of his room in sock feet, clutching his phone for dear life. His housemate Sheik was sitting on the living room floor, looking like he was meditating or something, his legs contorted in an odd position and his hands clasped together. Link could hear his breathing from across the room, deep and even. He crept past, not wanting to interrupt his friend's path to epiphany or whatever he was always going on about. He found his shoes by the door right where he had left them last night, and he only slipped the sneakers on, crushing the backs with his heels as he shuffled quickly out to his car. He swung in effortlessly, clamping his phone between his ear and his shoulder after he clicked on the third and final voice mail. Link hoped against hope that what he would hear would be Zelda apologizing, saying that it was just a cat or something, but the terrified whispering that he heard instead made his stomach sink to his toes.

"Link... the guy's in my house..." His blood ran cold as her voice turned small and scared, almost on the verge of whimpering. "The police hung up on me. I don't know what to do... so please... if you wake up... please come help-" Link started as an shrill scream of fear sounded in his ear. He slammed on the brakes on reflex and nearly caused the lone car behind him to rear end him. The car honked loudly, then sped past him, the driver flipping him the bird with a snarl on his face.

Whereas normally he would have shot the enraged driver a smile and a wave, now Link only stared ahead in shock as he heard rustling on the other end of the line, then the clatter of plastic landing on the ground. He could hear frantic, unintelligible pleading and talking, then another high pitched shriek that was abruptly cut off by a heavy, full bodied thud. He sucked in a breath, then pushed down on the gas. He drove without thinking, listening to scream after faint scream, the phone on the other end faithfully recording the sound of someone being dragged across carpet and the tinkle of breaking glass. It finally cut off right as Zelda was howling something about not knowing anything, you goddess damned bast-

Link quickly called her as soon as the message was done playing through, his breath coming in quick, panicky gasps. He fumbled with the keys, swerving to avoid a dog that had run out into the road. He winced as he heard it yelp in surprise, but it was soon out of his mind. There was only silence on Zelda's end of the phone, and he growled, throwing the phone onto the passenger seat, the device bouncing off leather and ending up on the cluttered floor. His shoulders tensed as he grabbed the wheel, and by the time he got to Zelda's house, he was a twitching, nervous wreck, her screams replaying over and over in the back of his mind. Link didn't bother to turn off the car, only shifted into park and sprinted out the door, his mind reeling-

(I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!)

(STOP!)

When he reached the front door, he raised his hand to knock, but as soon as his knuckles touched the door, it breezed open softly. The lock and the knob were a mess of splintered wood, and Link closed his eyes, pushing the door open.

"Zelda?" he called out faintly. He was met with silence. He pushed the door open with his foot, the hinges creaking ominously, almost sounding like a metallic cackle. He stepped inside, his nose wrinkling at the disarray he saw inside. Zelda normally kept her sparse house pin straight, but today everything was off kilter and knocked over. Countless books spilled off shelves, chairs lay toppled on their sides, and stuffing was even pulled out of the couch. It lay on the ground like huge clumps of wooly snow.

Link stepped inside, trying to remain calm despite the now almost nauseous mixture of anxiety and panic he felt. He leaned into her kitchen and was met with more carnage. Her refrigerator hung wide open, a chill sneaking into the tiled room along with a faint yellow glow from the light inside. Fruit and other foodstuffs lay scattered haphazardly on the floor, and Link even saw a smattering of white pills on the counter, the orange prescription bottle they came in upended next to the pile. He turned, seeing the hallway that led to the rest of her house, and swallowed audibly. Alarm bells rang and clattered in his head when he saw several smearings of red on the carpet leading from the front door to the other end of the short hallway.

Link started towards the white door at the end of the hallway, sparing a cursory glance for the bathroom. Yet another mess, beauty products and makeup spilled on the floor and sending off a gag inducing scent mixture of fake roses, ripe apples, and chemicals. Link held his breath as he reached the end of the hallway where the door was. He reached out a shaking hand to turn the knob, then hesitated, his hand turned ninety degrees. He took a deep breath, the smell of wasted perfume making his head spin, then pushed open the door.

Link almost wanted to throw up when the smell of blood and fear mixed with the manufactured scent of flowers. He clamped his nose shut, his eyes watering as he slowly shuffled in the room, looking at his feet because he was afraid of what he would see. The grey carpet was soaked with blood, and he inhaled and exhaled, trying to keep himself from flipping a shit. He lifted his gaze the tiniest bit, seeing two bare feet hanging off the bed in the middle of the room. The toenails were painted a hot pink. Link could see cuts striping up her naked legs even with his view partially obscured by his blonde, shaggy hair. Part of him screamed for him to just leave and call an ambulance, to remember Zelda how she had appeared before, but the other half needed to know

(Please-)

(I don't feel-)

(WAKE UP!)

just what had happened. The decision was made in a split second, and Link quickly flipped his head up, his eyes creaking open. His face crumpled like a rag, disgust and horror both jockeying for position on his face as his jaw dropped soundlessly. He beheld the gruesome scene before him at first with a morbid awe that was quickly dismissed. It didn't leave, only morphed into shock, and every single detail of the scene before Link imprinted itself into his memory, seared into his eyelids. Even when he blinked, the bed and Zelda on it seemed to float in the darkness of his closed lids like the blur after the camera flash.

Link couldn't get over how much blood there was... It was splattered on the wall, it squelched beneath his shoes as he took a step forwards, and the sheets were soaked in red along with her pale skin. Zelda laid diagonal across the bed. She was half naked, her upper half only covered by a tank top that was slit up the back. Her face was turned away from him, her body uncomfortably contorted. Her long brunette hair was splayed out in a bloodstained fan, part of it covering her face like a mask, the other half so long that it spilled off the opposite edge of the bed. Her arms were cruelly wrenched and twisted behind her back, bound with thick twine.

But what was most nauseating about the scene wasn't the blistering burns covering her shoulders and bound arms, or even the thin, red lacerations lacing over every visible inch of skin that Link could see. It was the way in which the body was placed. It looked like it had just been carelessly tossed there, left to rot after being played with for too long. Link found himself shaking in either fury or horror at the sight.

Link took another shuddering step forward, then another, and another, until he was by the headboard of the bed. Her face was half buried in the stained red hills of the sheets and the chocolate strands of her hair, but Link could still see the piercing indigo blue of her eyes, staring at him with a glazed, pained expression. He closed his eyes lightly, feeling hysteria bubble up under his skin and almost come out as a scream. He clamped a hand over his mouth before it could pour out, squeezing his eyes shut as tightly as he could. Even with all the spots and colors dancing in the darkness he had created, Zelda's pointed stare followed him inside his head, and he almost imagined he could hear her rising up from her permanent sleep, screaming about how if he wasn't sleeping so soundly then he would have been able to save her, if he hadn't been a dumbshit and left his phone on silent then he could have stopped this from happening, if he had stayed up later than he had then he could have gotten her phone call, the first one, and she wouldn't have been alone, wouldn't have died in the presence of the monster that had done this-

She had given him a chance to save her, and he had failed.

* * *

**Wellllluh... I wasn't going to post this until I finished some other stuff, but then I went "screw it," and decided to publish. This was just going to be a take on the whole thing with Impa in SS, where she's a total bitch and is just like, "You were late, you failed, you suck, goodbye," but then it started to evolve beyond that, and so now I have a full blown plot on my hands :P Thanks a bunch, overactive imagination.  
**

**The reason for the police being a bunch of assholes will be expounded upon later. Sooooorrrrrreeeeeeyyyy...  
**

**Updates will be slow, unless I see like, massive out pour of support. If so, then so be it - I'll do my best to update more frequently. So if you want to see more (I'm serious this time), then review/favorite/follow, and we'll be cool :D**

**~Eva  
**


	2. Steel Bends

**Ooooo... I'm on a roll. At four in the morning O_o Going back to school's gonna suck.**

**But anyway, enjoy! If there are any errors, let me know. I just kind of wanted to get this out, so I didn't proofread too carefully.  
**

**Warning: This chapter contains alcohol use, a murder, and DRUNKEN ANGST.  
**

**I don't own Zelda.  
**

* * *

Link blankly watched as the black body bag was rolled out of the house, zipped up tight. The two EMTs pulling it across the yard were quiet, and the forensics team filed in through the open door, dressed in white bunny suits, complete with booties and surgical masks. The ambulance drove off without ceremony, rolling down the road towards the morgue.

"Mr. Greene, we're going to need to see your phone." He shrugged noncommittally, not meeting the cop's stare.

"Do you have a warrant?" The two police officers questioning him looked at each other, then back down at the Hylian man sitting half in and half out of the cruiser, his feet tapping restlessly on the ground.

"Look, this will go a lot quicker if you just give us the phone," the one on the right said, a scowl passing briefly over his face. "We won't take it; we just want to hear these voicemails you've been talking about." Link arched an eyebrow.

"Why should I give it to you?"  
"We need to establish a timeline."

"Look in your own damn phone records if you want a timeline," he snapped. His head finally snapped up as he fixed the officers with a furious stare. "_She called you. _She needed help, and you hung up on her-" The cop on the right cut him off, practically yelling at Link to be heard.

"Miss Nohansen has called in multiple false alarms due to paranoia and hallucinations-"

"Who gives a flying fuck if it was her hundredth or first time calling!? She needed your help! You should have done your job and gone to help her!" Link seethed, standing up from his perch in the backseat and just narrowly avoiding banging his head on the roof of the car. He stood taller than one of the detectives, and he took a cautionary step back before speaking again.

"If we could see your phone, please." He held out an expectant hand, and Link stared incredulously at him,

(she called you, she needed help and-)

then sagged, most of his rage rushing out of him in a defeated sigh.

(YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE YOUR JOB AND GONE TO HELP HER-)

It was no use blaming someone else. Hopefully these guys could find out who did this.

"Okay," he grumbled softly. "I just need it back. I need to call my boss." The taller detective beamed at him, and the shorter one palmed the phone before quickly flicking over to the voicemails and setting it to speaker. Link felt a pang of shame stab through him as Zelda's frantic pleas once again rang through the air, pierced into his eardrums, and beat into his brain, the message still the same one that had been singing through his head all morning.

_You fucked up, man. And Zelda paid the price._

He almost plugged his ears when they reached the third and final message, his face draining of blood and turning a sickly shade of greenish white. He could only remain frozen as a new wave of shame crashed over him, and the officers were silent for a moment as well.

"Son of a bitch," one of them muttered. Link thought it was the short one.

"She doesn't know where what is?" the taller one asked, and Link shook his head.

"I have no idea." He rubbed a hand over his face, wiping away the cold sweat that had cropped up on his forehead as he had listened to Zelda's messages again. "All I know is that the guy tore her house apart looking for it. It used to be neat as a pin, and now it's… like that," he said hoarsely. The shorter officer looked at him again and noticed how he seemed to be swaying slightly as he stared at the open doorway of what used to be Zelda Nohansen's house. He quickly shoved the phone back in Link's hands.

"Here kid. Call your boss, then go home. Get some rest." He shook his head, his blue eyes distant and staring.

"No… I need to do something to take my mind off it… I need to help," Link finally said after a long pause. The taller man kneeled down in front of him. Link pulled his gaze away from the mangled white door and looked the man in the face for the first time. He was maybe about fifty, with soft brown eyes and hair that was starting to grey at the temples. Frown lines creased his forehead, and they deepened the longer he studied Link.

"Look. We'll call you if we find anything, and we're going to need a statement anyway, but you should get out of here. I'm surprised the media isn't here already, but once they do, it's going to get chaotic. I have a feeling you're not the guy that wants a camera shoved in his face-" Link nodded at this, his expression unchanging. "-but once they find out that you found the body, they're going to descend. They're like vultures, you get me?" He nodded again, and the cop nodded with him. "Yeah. So here's my card." He pulled it from his pocket without a flourish and handed it to Link. He accepted it, shooting a look at the name he had forgotten almost as soon as he was introduced to the duo. Feser Rowe. Detective. "Call us when you feel up to it, but preferably sooner than later," he continued. He grabbed Link's shoulder and pulled him up. Rowe stood a good head taller than the twenty year-old. He clapped his hand on his shoulder again, staring at him worriedly before pushing him in the direction of his car. Link stumbled slightly, but then regained his balance, shooting the cops one last look before he hopped in his car and drove away.

…

He called Maple in the car. He could almost picture her tottering over to the phone in the kitchen, her grayed curls bouncing slightly. The dimmest of smiles made the corners of his mouth twitch; his mental image had reminded him of his Grandma Pearl.

"Oak's Diner, how may I help you?" she answered cheerfully. He cleared his throat before answering.

"Hey Maple, it's Link. I-" he stopped when she started to talk again.

"Oh Link! Are you sick? Is that why you're not in today? If you stop by, I can give you some soup!" she said worriedly. He opened his mouth to talk again, but she was off again. "I wonder if there's a bug going around – Midna called in sick too. Had to get in Anju instead, but you know that poor dear, she can't cook to save her life. Horribly clumsy too…" she huffed out, and Link quickly butted in before she could get going again.

"Maple, I'm really sorry, but something came up, and I don't think I can come in today." He could almost picture her opening her mouth to say something, and he quickly cut her off. "No, I'm not sick… It's just… a mental health day." He bit his lip as she hummed in consideration.

"This is really short notice, dearie. I don't know if I can do it. What popped up, if you don't mind me asking?" Link sighed, hesitated as something that felt like a stone settled in his stomach. His jaw flapped soundlessly for a second, then he finally found his voice again.

"There's been a death. One of my friends-" He was cut off yet again by her horrified gasp.

"Sweetie, I'm so sorry! Yes! Yes! Take the day off! I'll call Kaefi and see if he'll work a double shift."

"I don't think he'll mind," Link said absently, thinking of the time he walked in on Kaefi and Anju making out in the freezer room. He could hear yet more concern in her voice when she continued.

"You're off tomorrow, correct?"

"Yeah."

"You think you can come to work then?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then see you then. My condolences again, sweetheart. I hope you feel better." Maple hung up before Link could even say good-bye. He closed his eyes and breathed through his nose deeply before calling Midna. The first thing he heard when she picked up was a violent sneeze.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded stuffy and muffled. "Link? Fancy seeing you up at this hour…" she trailed off into a coughing fit, and Link grimaced at the wet sound.

"Hey, are you home right now?"

"Duh, genius. I'm fucking sick."

"Do you mind if I stop over for a minute?"

"You want the flu?"

"I really don't care," Link said flatly, turning onto Midna's street.

"Aw, what happened to Mr. Sunshine?" she said lightly after coughing again.

"I'm pulling up right now." He hung up right in the middle of Midna's squawk of protest and parked in the driveway of her apartment building. He could see a flurry of bright orange hair in one of the windows by the door, and then it vanished. He walked up to the door and knocked several times. She pulled the door open, wincing at the bright sunlight. Link averted his eyes a little when he saw he was basically in just a bra and some shorts. Her orange bangs were plastered to her forehead with sweat, and her eyes were two dark hollows in her face, the spark present before now dulled.

"Fuck, you're awful." She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand. "I have a migraine right now, you know. I'm so sick, I don't even care that you're seeing me in my underwear," she grouched, pulling him inside her dimly lit house. It smelled like Vaseline and cough syrup, all the curtains pulled over the windows and all the lights turned to their dimmest setting. She turned to him, looking Link directly in the eyes. She was nearly as tall as he was.

"Okay, what's wrong? You've got a weird look on your face, and you're up, but not at work." She shuffled over to a futon and flopped down, her bare legs hanging off the edge. Link noticed faintly that her toes were painted the exact same bright pink as Zelda's; they must have done them together. He walked over and sat on her bed heavily, the springs creaking. He noticed Midna wincing at the squealing noise, and he sat for a moment, his head bowed.

"Zelda's dead." Midna pushed herself up.

"You're shitting me." Her voice was toneless and disbelieving, her face twisted in confusion. "You're shitting me," she repeated, staring at Link intently, her pupils dilated to huge proportions in the dark room.

He shook his head, and she flopped back on the couch silently, staring up at the ceiling. Link swore he could see tears start to run down her ashen face, and she sniffed loudly, finally sitting up to grab a Kleenex from a box on the table. She blew her nose into it with a noisy honk, then looked up at Link. He hadn't been hallucinating; Midna was shedding honest-to-goddess tears. They trailed over her high cheekbones and left behind gleaming wet tracks on her sweaty skin.

"How did it happen?" she said hoarsely. He hesitated for what felt like the millionth time that day, and time literally seemed to freeze around him. The realization that Zelda was dead, ripped from her life so early it was cruel, hit him again, and he could only gape openmouthed at nothing in particular. He finally felt tears begin to prick at his eyes, and Midna saw the dim shining even in the low light. She picked herself up and stumbled over to him, nearly collapsing on the unmade bed next to Link. The air seemed to crackle next to her. Heat was pouring off her like a furnace, and when she turned to Link, he saw a deep hollowness in her eyes.

"Link, I need to know. Tell me," she pleaded weakly. The world, which had only been progressing in snap shot frames and stop motion, now came alive again, and Link broke down as all his grief and self hatred pressed in on him anew, this time looming and towering over him, suffocating him unless he said-

"Someone killed her! They got in her house and they killed her and I could have stopped it but I didn't because I SUCK!" he howled. Midna pulled away more, her eyes wide with horror.

"Oh Din… Oh Din…" she muttered, her fingers touching her lips gently. Link buried his head in his hands, and the tears finally started to flow down his face, hot and bitter with shame.

"I could've saved her, but I didn't…" he moaned, his feet once again tapping nervously on the carpeted floor. "She called me, but I was sleeping, and I didn't wake up." Midna got up shakily and stumbled over to her small kitchen. When she came back, she had a bright green bottle and two shot glasses in her hand.

"Midna, I really don't…" His protests were cut short when Midna forced the glass into his hand.

"Just do it, Mr. Sunshine. One night of binge drinking does not an alcoholic make. And let's face it, this is a special circumstance."

…

An hour and four shots later, and Link was beginning to feel a pleasant numbness replacing the buzzing in his head. Midna pushed another neon colored drink towards him, but he shook his head.

"I think I've had enough," he slurred out. Midna scoffed at him.

"Lightweight." She elbowed him in the ribs, then downed his shot as well as hers. She breathed heavily through her mouth, then shook her head, her fiery hair flaring out behind her like a fan.

"Middie, I think you've had enough too." She giggled and hiccupped, ignoring the nickname.

"Fine." She dumped the metal bottle on the ground with a clang, then jumped slightly at the sound. She shook her head again, like a cow trying to get rid of the flies buzzing around its head. "Goddesses… I can't believe she's gone," she said quietly.

"Me neither…" Midna snapped her fingers frantically, then made a finger gun at Link.

"I know what we should do!" she shouted. "We should say what our favorite memory of Zelda was! Like, focus on her life instead of her. You know." Link nodded spastically, his head bobbling.

"I'll go first!" Midna's hand darted in the air, and then the story of how her and Zelda met in grade school spilled from her mouth breathlessly, slurred and interrupted by several tangents and expletives.

"… But she ended up coming from behind and dumping a bunch of mud on their fancy schamncy dresses! It was pretty much the most badass thing I'd seen. We both ended up in the principal's office, and she got a bloody nose, but we were…" she snapped her fingers again, her eyes wandering as she tried to think of the word. "Thick as thieves! That's it!" She burst out laughing then, and Link couldn't help but join her. She quieted then, her eyes faraway and glittering.

"I'm gonna miss her. I'm gonna miss her a lot." She nodded faintly, muttering something under her breath, but then she turned to Link again.

"Favorite memory of Zelda! Go!" Midna crowed. Link stuttered for a moment, then suddenly remembered a time a week ago.

"Well, there was this thing at Kaefi's house…"

"I don't get why his hair is purple," Midna interrupted, and he shot her a glare. She made a warped puppy dog face at him, and it was a couple minutes before they stopped giggling hysterically.

"But I drove her home…"

"Yeah…"

"And before I did, she pulled me around to the side of the house…"

"And you guys did it! Oh Din! I totally called it!" Midna punched him in the stomach, but there was almost no force behind it. "Way to go tiger!" His whole face turned bright red.

"We just kissed! Cool your jets!" She squealed, grabbing onto his arm.

"Oh my gosh, you guys kissed! That's so cute! She didn't tell me, I don't know why she didn't tell me…" She continued to chatter about them as leaned further and further forward, and the lower she got, the more she sounded almost panicked. She finally burst into sobs, resting her head on Link's knee.

"Fuck… Why'd she have to go…" Midna blubbered out. She trembled as she wailed, and Link rubbed her back slowly in circles.

"I don't know… I don't know…" he repeated softly, and Midna gradually fell asleep, her near hysterical weeping dying down. Link slowly felt himself come down from his momentary high the longer he sat on Midna's bed, propped up against the wall. He fished his nearly dead phone out of his pocket and called Sheik.

A quiet rustling. "What is it?" he said gruffly.

"Hey bro… I need a favor."

"Woah. So when you need me to do something for you, I'm your brother?" Link blinked rapidly.

"Look, I just need to be picked up now. I don't want to be driving, and I'm with Midna at her house. She's really sick, and I feel bad leaving her alone." Sheik harrumphed in reply, then hung up. Lin watched the clock tick slowly to ten o' clock, then there was a sharp rap at the door. Link shifted Midna off his lap, then ran to the doorway, opening it for his housemate. Sheik had his arms crossed tightly over his chest.

"You're so lucky I was at home."

"You're always at home." Sheik shrugged.

"Then you have good odds." He looked over Link's shoulder at Midna passed out on the couch. One eyebrow quirked up.

"Geez, what were you guys doing? Who gets drunk at like, ten o' clock in the morning?" It was now Link's turn to shrug and shuffle after Sheik as he walked inside the house. He picked up the bottle without even looking at the label, then scooped up Midna. She muttered something in her stupor, her head lolling to the side.

"Grab the Kleenex… I think we're out."

"What's the booze for?"

"We're out." Link rolled his eyes, then blinked as the world spun around him. He grabbed a chair back for support.

"Please tell me I don't have to carry you too…" Link shook his head.

"I'm good. Let's get out of here."

…

The ride home was silent. Midna was snoring in the backseat. Link was trying not to fall asleep as the car rocked back and forth. Sheik was Sheik.

Link got out of the car as soon as they pulled into the driveway, ignoring Sheik's grumbling about having to carry Midna by himself, but he wanted to get to bed while he still felt somewhat anesthetized. He dropped into bed with all his clothes on, and he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He slept clear through to the next morning.

But early the next morning, in between all the hazy images that floated around in his unconscious brain, he had the first dream.

* * *

_The woman was hunched over on the ground, crawling frantically on her belly away from a shadow that was doggedly following her every step. A trail of blood followed her as well, bright red and shining compared to the dim gloom of the library. The shadow took an easy step forward and kicked the woman cruelly in the ribs. There was a sharp snapping noise, and blood flew from her mouth in a fine spray as she curled around the injury, her soft nose almost brushing against the ground. She moaned and sped up, clawing at the carpeted ground until she hit one of the only walls free of books. She struggled to simultaneously sit up and move away from the figure, but he only watched silently as she slowly turned around to face the shadow. The woman's legs were limp and unresponsive, covered in blood from the slit tendons in her knees. Bruises shadowed under her baby blue eyes. The shadow's foot came up and then stomped down on her calf, snapping the bone in two. A harsh scream rang out in the deserted archives, and the woman's vision swam nauseatingly._

Where is it?!

"_GO TO HELL!" she shrieked, blood trickling out the corner of her mouth. While everything else started to go dark, almost like a grayscale version of the real world, only the blood kept its color and dimension, glimmering a dim crimson. Another kick and a sharp squeak like a wounded animal._

This can end any time you want, Miss Masters. You might not even have to die… All I'm asking is that you tell me what I need to know._ He could see her hesitate, the pain on her face winning out for a second before she shook her head again, her slivery blonde hair limp and scraggly with clotting blood. _

"_I can't, I can't…" she whimpered, placing a hand on the ground to steady herself as she wavered. A foot came up, and then descended, grinding into the pale hand with the heel of a boot. There were several small cracking noises, and the woman howled, her mouth distending and her eyes squeezing shut. Shining tears trailed down her cheeks, and when her hand was finally released, she picked it up quickly and clutched it to her chest gingerly, weeping over her mangled fingers. Her white blouse was stained with the fresh blood from her hand, and she hiccupped._

"_I can't tell you…" she spat out, acid feebly trickling back into her voice. She moaned when the foot reached out and nudged – well, really more kicked – her splintered leg._

"_I won't," she mewled after another moment of silence, "I can't betray the others-"_

What others?_ The shadow pounced on the slip-up without missing a beat, grabbing her by the front of her shirt and lifting her up to meet his eyes. They were a muddy, reddish brown, surrounded by bloodshot, yellowed whites. They bored into her skull as if he could reach into her brain and pluck out the answers he so desperately sought. The woman swallowed and blinked at him mutely._

WHAT OTHERS!?_ he screamed in her face, shaking her violently back and forth. Her teeth rattled in her skull, and her feet came out of her heeled shoes and fell to the floor with twin muted thumps. She shook her head and shrieked wordlessly as her hand and her legs and chest exploded in agony. Suddenly, the world tilted around her as she was thrown to the floor. Her shoulder crunched under her, and she rolled a couple of times before stopping. The woman crawled a couple of feet before stopping, crumpling completely to the floor and weeping into the carpet. _

_Her bawling turned into a high-pitched cry when she was kicked over onto her back, another rib cracking with the force of the blow. Her breath gurgled faintly in her throat, and her vision started to fade. She could dimly see the shadow kneeling next to her, turning her face towards his with a touch not unlike a caress. The softness of the gesture was soon negated by the harsh grip on her chin. Her skin broke out in goosebumps, and all her pain started to fade away._

_Where are the others? he asked impatiently. Her mouth creaked open slightly, a small gasp escaping as more red trickled out of her already blood-stained lips._

"_I'll… never… tell…" she whispered, her now breathy voice breaking on every syllable. The shadow let out an angry grunt, and he promptly stood up._

_The last thing the woman saw was a booted foot streaking towards her face, and then her already dimming life guttered out like a spent candle._

_...  
_

**Any guesses as to who the mysterious woman is? I think you'll be able to guess. And two of you can't say anything, because I told you... You know who you are.**_  
_

**But yeah. We're gonna let Link stew for awhile... Delicious guilt stew... I loved writing Maple. Gosh, grandmas are just freaking awesome. God, I'm really tired and now I'm rambling. This is what happens. **

**Eva out, before I say something dumb. :P  
**


	3. Let There be Light

**Leedle leedle leedle... Guess who just got a brand spankin' new laptop! This chick, right here. This will hopefully make writing a whole lot easier, which means more updates and stuff! Yay!**

**So read on, iffen you please. This chapter contains more strong language, so again, caution if you don't like that sort of thing. Midna has a bit of a potty mouth.**

**I don't own Zelda.**

* * *

Link's eyes snapped open abruptly, the details of the dream flying from his mind and only leaving an imprint of terror, pain, and silvery hair. He laid there for a moment, staring out the open window, his cheek pressed into his hand and his body twisted uncomfortably, a result of horrified thrashing. His head throbbed when he started to lift it, so he stayed stone still, trying to process the hellish nightmare he had just experienced.

Sometimes Link had dreams where all his teeth dropped out one by one, or where he fell and slammed against the bottom of a pit. Those were terrifying in that he wasn't panicky at all while he was sleeping; the horror had hit him when he woke up, startled and covered in sweat.

But this was completely different. He wasn't the one experiencing the pain and then just feeling numbness. He was watching it happen, but while it was taking place, it all seemed so real… Link's sides had seemed to ache in sympathy when the woman's skin and bone caved to steel-toed boots, and his knees felt weak when he saw the damage done to the tendons that should have held her legs upright. The awkward angle of her head on her broken neck was the final image that had flashed through his mind before he woke, and now Link saw it every time he closed his smarting eyes.

He tried his hardest to stay focused on the single streetlight outside his window, watching as a large, shaggy dog darted into the yellow pool of light, then sprinted away, snuffling at the ground and whining faintly. His head ached, and there was a nasty taste in his mouth. He turned his head and looked at the clock. Three am. He had slept the rest of the day and most of the night away as well. He picked himself up off the bed, then flipped over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling as he tried to clear his mind. It refused to wipe itself clean, his thoughts still chugging gently along, not frantic yet, but still racing fast enough that they couldn't be slowed.

Every time Link closed his eyes, he either saw Zelda or the silver haired woman. They seemed to take turns tormenting him, staring at him lifelessly with either a twisted neck or a slit throat, the similarities ending after their crystal clear blue eyes. The silver haired woman simply looked confused and afraid; Zelda looked enraged and grief-stricken, her face covered in blood.

Link rubbed his own with curled fists as if he could wipe the grisly images away, but they wouldn't leave. He kicked off his shoes, took off most of his clothes until he was just in a t-shirt and boxers, and changed positions multiple times, drawing the blinds shut until he was in complete darkness except for the digital numbers on the clock. He shot a glance at the clock.

Five after three.

"Fuck," he muttered, drawing a hand over his face. Link waited a couple more minutes, then stumbled out of bed, navigating seamlessly around the piles of stuff in his room. He slid out into the hallway, then headed straight for the fridge. He got himself a glass of water, which helped with the disgusting taste in his mouth, then made his way to the couch in front of the TV. He flopped down without a second thought, then spilled icy water all over himself when a muffled, angry grunt and a kick came from the strangely lumpy couch. He stood up jerkily, shivering at the feeling of water trickling down his legs and stomach.

"Fucking moron! Who is that?" Midna's hoarse voice came from the other end. "Whoever you are, you're a fat ass. You nearly broke my legs!"

"It's just me. Calm down." Her voice seemed softer now.

"Oh. Hi. Sorry. What are you doing up? More specifically, what are you doing waking me up?" Link held up his hands, surrendering even though she couldn't see him.

"You got me. I woke up at three am just to sit on you and piss you off," he said flatly. A sigh and a shift.

"Well, since you went to all the effort, sit with me. That's your punishment." She breathed out. Link did as Midna said and sat down heavily, groaning. He slouched against the arm of the couch, groping for the remote. The TV flicked on with a small snapping noise, and an old soap started to play, the characters grainy and overacting, their movements large and their voices louder. Link turned down the volume, then looked at Midna. In the pinkish light the TV was giving off, she looked almost healthy if you ignored the massive bags under her bloodshot eyes. Her shoulders and face were covered in sweat, but the rest of her wasn't visible under several thick blankets. Link thought he recognized one from Sheik's bed. She curled up into a small ball and turned towards the light like a flower spinning towards the sun, pulling the blankets up to her chin after studying him for a moment with narrowed, dilated eyes. Link turned to the TV too, and they sat in awkward silence for a moment before Midna spoke again.

"Thanks for bringing me here," she said quietly.

"It's no problem."

"Like, I don't think I could have stayed by myself," Midna added in a whispery soft voice, curling further in on herself. Link shot a glance at her, but she didn't look at him, her eyes glued to the glowing screen. They watched a count die and then get magically revived, several people cheat on someone they were apparently soul mates with, and then a fight for someone's honor which ended with said resurrected count falling off a balcony.

"I think this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen," Midna said when the credits finally started rolling. Link shook himself out of the daze he had fallen into.

"What?" Midna rolled her eyes.

"Nothing. Just turn on the news... It's four, it should be on by now." Link pulled out the remote and did as she said, then stiffened when a picture of Zelda flashed onto the screen along with a booming anchor voice.

"… Mystery surrounding the murder of a young Hylian woman in her own home. More of the latest, and what police are saying about the possible connection this has to the death of Fi Masters in this half hour." Link's heart nearly stopped when a smaller picture of the same silver haired woman he had seen in his dream popped up on the screen.

"Holy shit…" he gasped out.

"What's wrong? Should we turn it off?" Midna said hurriedly, picking herself up a little bit and staring at her friend.

"No! No!" he said, his hands fluttering in his lap as he leaned a little bit forward unconsciously. Midna shook her head.

"Link, I don't think this is a good idea." She sat up with difficulty, her head spinning, and tried to grab his arm, but he shifted away, shrinking into the corner of the couch. The first thought that hit Midna was that he looked like some sort of panicked animal, his eyes glued to the screen which was now showing the five-day forecast.

"I need to see!" he repeated insistently. Midna's face tightened, and she shivered, huddling back down under the blankets and crossing her arms over her chest. Link leaned forward and was silent, his clasped fists shaking and pressed to his mouth. The two were silent as the weather and the traffic reports were run through with seemingly no haste, the smiles on the weatherman's face as fake and slow as they were before. Link only continued to tremble, his thoughts racing even faster than they had back in his bedroom.

He stiffened, bowed forward so his elbows rested on his knees when one of the main anchors came back on screen, a somber look on her powdered, tanned face.

"More reports and tips continue to pour into the station about the murder of Miss Zelda Nohansen, a twenty year old university student who was found murdered in her home early yesterday morning. Police say that she was attacked by an intruder who broke the lock on her door late Friday night, and that she was then tortured over the span of several hours until her assailant finally killed her." Link hid his face with splayed fingers as footage of her house with fluttering yellow police tape still crisscrossing over the door was displayed. "Police are not releasing the identity of the person who discovered her body, but they are saying that it was a friend who declined to comment at this time. They are also claiming that Miss Nohansen did not call police, but she did call the friend, which was how he knew to come over-"

"Bullshit!" Midna almost immediately spat, pointing a shaking, accusing finger at the TV as if the anchorwoman could hear her. "Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!" she shrieked, her hoarse voice growing in volume until she was howling at the screen. "Those dirty, fucking liars!" She spun towards Link, her eyes delirious with anger and fever. "She told you she called the cops, right?!" Link could only nod, his hands clenched into fists so tight his fingernails cut into his palm. Sheik walked in, rubbing his blood red eyes with the heel of his hand.

"Why are you screaming… Too early for screaming…" he muttered sleepily. Midna rounded on him, hushing him and pointing harshly at the screen. Now, an image of Zelda and the silver haired woman shared the screen, one brunette and smiling, the other smooth faced, pale, and impassive.

"… However, police are also questioning whether or not there is a chance that these two deaths are connected. Both young women lived alone, had similar blue eyes, and were murdered in the early hours of the morning within a couple of weeks of each other. The sheer brutality of these crimes is also striking, and is indicative that whoever this perpetrator is, he or she is very violent and very dangerous. If you have information, please contact our anonymous tipline-" Midna pushed herself off the couch with apparent effort, then staggered over and turned off the TV, breathing so hard it was like she was sighing continuously. Her face was livid and bright red when she turned around.

"Those… bastards!" she sputtered. "They fucked up, and they won't admit it!" She stumbled over to Link, dropping to one knee so hard that the glass he had left on the on the floor rattled against wood. She grabbed his wrists and pulled them in front of her face, framing her pale skin with tan, calloused hands.

"When you go and talk to those detectives, give them hell from me. They can't do that! They can't do that!" Tears shone feverishly in her eyes as she continued to babble, furious and disgusted words spilling out of her mouth so fast they tripped over themselves and lost all meaning. Sheik came behind her and pulled her off of Link, who still looked slightly shocked, and her arms dropped to her side, elbows limp and fingers twitching. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and she muttered incoherently as Sheik whispered to her and pushed her back onto the couch. Link stood up when she tried to struggle her way back to a sitting position, gnashing her teeth and breathing heavily. Link came over to the side and felt her forehead. She was blistering hot, her skin papery under a thin veil of perspiration. Her sunset eyes flicked erratically back and forth between Link and Sheik.

"They can't do that…" she repeated, moaning as she uselessly flexed her arms in an attempt to get Sheik to let her go. "They just can't…"

"Do we have a thermometer anywhere?" Link asked Sheik. His housemate pointed wordlessly to a cabinet next to the refrigerator, and Link found what he was looking for after a solid ten minutes of searching. After they forced Midna to keep it under her tongue for the amount of time required, Sheik took a single look at the display and swore loudly.

"We're going to need to take her to a hospital," he told Link, his face screwed up in some indescribable emotion.

"No… No hospital…" Midna groaned, then let out a long string of expletives and gibberish. Sheik looked at Link, and he thought for a moment, then leaned down closer to Midna's face.

"Hey Midna, are you hot?" She nodded fervently. "Well, Sheik's going to take you to go get ice cream, okay?" Her face brightened, and Link cheered a little bit internally.

"What the hell…" Sheik muttered, and Link looked at him.

"She's got a really severe sweet tooth." Understanding dawned on his housemate's face.

"I want chocolate…" Midna slurred out. "Sheik, get me chocolate, 'kay…." Her hands reached up and grabbed Sheik's wrists. He motioned towards Link.

"Erm, Link's going to take you to the hos- I mean, the ice cream store, right, Link?" Sheik looked at his housemate pleadingly. Link was just about to open his mouth to say something, but Midna cut him off.

"But… You're so cold… and you said you'd get me chocolate…" she whined out. Link shrugged and smirked at his friend as he tried to tug his hands out of Midna's clutches.

"You did promise…" he sang in a mocking voice. Sheik swore under his breath again, then scooped Midna up, the blankets falling off her as she reached up and hugged his neck, snuggling into his chest. Link thought he saw his friend's face turn bright red even in the darkness as he walked out the door and to the car without another word.

With a final slam, the door closed, and Link was alone with his thoughts which continued to race in a turbulent swirl.

He tried to think of why he dreamed of someone he didn't even know existed.

Why the police said that Zelda didn't call them, when he had clear proof that she did?

And what could Zelda and this Fi have that was worth so much that they would die for it?

Link sat, and he wondered until the sun came up, but the new light brought no answers miraculously with it, like he had hoped. He looked at the clock, sighed when he saw it was now seven in the morning, and then went to go get ready to go over to the police station.

* * *

**Ta. Da. Slightly rushed ending is slightly rushed.**

**A couple things:**

**1. I'm aware that Maple from the last chapter is a lot younger in the OoX games, but I just found the name, thought it was a perfect old lady name, and used it. Sorry for the confusion, if there was any,**

**2. I'm going to shoot for shorter chapters, but quicker update times with this story. Expect to see a chapter once every week or so, but it'll only be around 5-7 pages, unless I just end up getting really inspired and stuff needs to happen.**

**So anyway - it's late. Gotta get to bed. Toodles, hope I didn't lose you, and pretty please, leave a review! You;ve all left so many nice words, it just motivates me to churn out another chapter!**

**Love,**

**~Eva**


	4. The Cat that Trapped the Canary

**This chapter's a little short, but... Whatever, it's important, okay? I promise, I'll get the next one out sooner, and that one will be longer.**

**Oh, and as for the police thing, I didn't bother to do research to make it realistic, so let's just say that their (Hyrule) system is different than ours...**

**Disclaimer on my profile.**

* * *

Link sat in the small interrogation room, his feet once again doing the same nervous dance they had been doing when he was encountered by the police. He let out a breath, looking at the walls shod in dull beige carpet, then checked his phone and called Sheik when he saw that he hadn't responded to his texts.

"What?" His voice was biting and tired, quieter than usual.

"Calm down, I just want to know how Midna's doing." Sheik breathed out, his sigh rattling in the receiver.

"She passed out on the way here, and she actually _just_ got taken in to see a doctor, because there was some major traffic thing downtown, and all of the people here are incompetent assholes. But I guess her fever spiked by a lot last night. Right now she's getting a drip or something in her arm for dehydration, and she's sleeping."

"So she's okay? Like, not dying or anything?" Link could practically hear Sheik rolling his eyes.

"Yes Link. She's fine. Now please, just don't call me again." There was silence on the other end, and Link pulled the phone from his ear and stared at it, confirming that yes, his housemate had hung up on him like that. Shaking his head, Link tucked the phone back into his pocket just as someone finally entered the windowless room. A scowling Twili man carrying a Styrofoam cup of coffee walked into the room.

"Feyser should be here in a minute." His voice was reedy and soft, his pale blue lips barely moving as he spoke. His eyes were pupilless, whiteless orbs of bright orange, and his hair was maroon, wildly curly, and short. Midna's exotic appearance was now trumped by this guy's, whoever he was. The Twili offered him the Styrofoam cup, and Link took it carefully, blowing on it before sipping. The man studied him without blinking, and Link stopped drinking for a second, confused.

"Can I help you?" he asked politely. The Twili shook his head.

"Yes. Can I borrow your phone? I have to make a call, and the phone lines are down?" He phrased the last part like a question, but the Hylian didn't notice when he held his breath. Link shrugged.

"Sure, I don't mind." He fished the phone out of his pants, quickly drew the design to unlock it with his thumb, then passed it to the Twili with a small smile. The officer's face was impassive as he took it and walked out of the interrogation room without another word. Link stared at the blue back of his uniform until the door closed, then sighed and sank back in his chair, occasionally sipping from the cup in front of him. The watery coffee had gone cold by the time the door opened again, and the Twili man poked his head inside.

"Thanks," he said shortly, striding over and tossing the phone on the table. Link winced as it clattered to a stop right in front of him. He looked back up, and the Twili man was gone. Link didn't pay it another thought when the door opened and yet another officer walked in. This one was a Gerudo woman with long, thick red hair pulled back in a braid flipped over her shoulder. She wore enough makeup to look flawless, but not enough to look trampy; her pencil skirt touched her knees and wasn't overly tight. She was nothing like the Gerudo Link knew. This one was all business.

She smiled at him, the warm grin and even teeth mismatching the cold, calculating look in her amber eyes. "Hello Mr. Greene. I'm Aveil Spears. It's very nice to meet you." He only looked warily at her hand.

"Where's Feyser?" he asked bluntly. One auburn eyebrow rose.

"Mr. Rowe isn't available right now," she answered just as shortly, waving him off while she sat down across from Link. "How are you doing?" Aveil asked in a sugary sweet voice. Link shifted uneasily; her unblinking stare was starting to freak him out a little.

"I'm fine, I guess," he mumbled. Her smile grew wider, and she propped her chin on her hands. Her nails were painted the exact shade of fresh blood.

"Feyser said something about a statement."

"I'm afraid that won't be necessary anymore." Link felt his face twist up in confusion before he could process the information further.

"What do you mean?" Aveil reached for his hand, but he yanked it away. "Don't touch me," he bit out, "and answer the question." The Gerudo sighed before tilting her chair back and folding her hands on her stomach.

"Mr. Greene, I'm second in command of the police force, and I'm in charge of PR." She said this with an air of self-importance, as if she expected him to start fawning over her, but he did nothing, only stared at her stonily.

"So what?" Her brow furrowed in distaste, and she rolled her eyes. She soon seemed to remember the fact that she was supposed to be acting genial, so her smile came back on full wattage, teeth glimmering in the dim light of the interrogation room.

"That means I'm in charge of making sure that the people continue to feel safe with the police department guarding them," she simpered. "If some naughty little boy continues to spread nasty rumors about how the police didn't respond to an emergency call, then the people don't feel safe, now do they?" Aveil finished all this with a patronizing fluttering of her eyelashes, and Link's jaw dropped.

"B-but, they're not rumors!" he sputtered out. "I have Zelda on tape saying that she called the police, and they hung up on her!" He stood up, his hands clenched into fists. The Gerudo stared coolly at him, her smile gone, the remaining legs of her chair thunking to the ground as she leaned forward.

"Sit down, Mr. Greene." She pointed to the chair with those same blood tipped fingers, but he stood there seething for a second, then walked over to the door. She didn't even turn around, not even when he let out a stream of curses when he tried the handle.

"Unlock the door!" he shouted, turning back to the woman who hadn't even deigned him worthy of her attention. She inspected her nails, humming slightly to herself while he paced, shouted, tried the door a couple more times, then finally walked behind her, sagging slightly in defeat and a fury so strong that it left him exhausted. The thought of punching her in the face if she ever turned around crossed his mind, but she seemed to read his intentions quickly, her head tilting up from the fascinating subject of her cuticles.

"Mr. Greene, if you touch me, even brush against me, I will have you arrested for assault on a police officer." She said to the empty chair in front of her. He let out an angry snort through his nose. "I suggest you sit down before you do something you'll regret later while you sit in a cell." He let out a final angry sigh, then stuffed his fists in his pockets and stalked back over to the chair opposite the bureaucrat. Link stared at his knees until she said softly, "Look at me, Mr. Greene." His lip curled, but he lifted his head for a second. He almost launched himself across the table when he saw a smug smirk twisting her aquiline features, but he only tensed and curled in on himself, his gaze returning to the table. Her head cocked to the side, her grin growing.

"Now Mr. Greene, we have a deal for you. You cease spreading these nasty, nasty rumors, and we don't arrest you for the murder of Zelda Nohansen." Link's heart jumped up into his throat, and he gasped sharply, gagging on some of his spit.

"What are – what are you talking about?! I-I didn't kill Zelda!" He choked out in between coughs, his blue eyes wide with shock and fear. "I did- I could-"

"Well, if you didn't do it, then who did?" The innocent look on Aveil's face was almost enough to set him off again, but he felt his anger rotting away, slowly being replaced by terror and guilt.

(LINK, PLEASE WAKE UP-)

"But I have-" His voice cracked, and he coughed one more time before speaking again. "I have the voicemails on my phone. That's proof!"

"Really? Let me see. Put it on speaker." The gleeful grin on her face didn't tip Link off as he opened his phone and promptly saw that there was an issue. The screen was a mess of static and black, the background picture cutting in with random, colored pixels.

"Having an issue?" He glared at her, but she only raised her chin in triumph.

"Tell anyone what transpired, and we will arrest you in connection with Miss Nohansen's death." She sighed, then beamed brightly. "Well, Mr. Greene, it was lovely getting to talk to you, but I have more important things to do." Aveil pushed out her chair, watching Link's face get steadily redder.

"You bitch…" he said quietly when she was halfway to the door. She stopped mid-step, then turned, a beatific smile on her face.

"I'm just doing my job, Mr. Greene." And with that, she swept out of the room in a cloud of perfume that weighed down the air, heavy and oppressive.

* * *

**Well then. Was anything a surprise? I'm going to guess yes, but hey, you never know. You could be psychic, my friends, you just didn't know it :D**

**Pretty please review! Reviews make me so happy, and this story already has quite a few! Bunches of thanks flowers to:**

**MsBBSue**

**zelda3469**

**Anarion Star-Dragon (anon)**

**Skyward Princess of Time**

**hylianprincessZ**

**MelissaMachine5000**

**ShadowQueenMidna**

**ZeldaPhoenixLegend**

**WolfenAmphithere**

**OrangeFanana**

**and Guest (anon) (even if you were a rude little bastard, but hey, _you don't read this story anyway._ I'll deal with you later *pointed stare*)**

**Until later,**

**~Eva**


	5. Bleeding Gums

**Did not really bother to proofread this, so if anything is wrong, I apologize. Just lemme know.**

**And also, warning, there is a somewhat graphic nightmare towards the end of this chapter. Again, I don't think this is anything terribly bad, but there is some blood and general nastiness. Fair warning.**

**I don't own Zelda.**

...

The Twili escorted Link out of the police office, walking behind him too close for comfort. Link would start when he felt shoes clip the back of his, and he would speed up, which he guessed was the intention. The two sped by a room filled with cubicles, and several officers and people with headsets clipped to their ears gave them puzzled looks before turning back to whatever they were working on. They reached the end of the hallway and a door before the sound of phones clicking and chatter ceased, and Link finally realized what room they had just passed – it was the 911 call center.

His steps became more and more insistent the angrier he became, and his hands once again turned to tight fists. When they reached the large, glass atrium that marked the entrance to the station, Link turned to the Twili.

"Back off! I swear, if you step on my shoes one more time I'll-" Link was surprised when he actually took a step back, his heels clicking sharply on the shiny stone floor. His mouth gaped for a moment, then his hands relaxed the slightest bit.

"You messed with my phone, didn't you?" he asked quietly. The Twili did nothing. A bloodshot sclera revealed itself at the corner of his eyelids as his eyes shifted over to the receptionist gabbing senselessly on her cell phone. He grabbed Link's arm and pulled him over to the wall, closer to the door. The woman barely shot them a glance, and there were no other people in the lobby. Link propped his shoulder on the glass wall

"Did you?" The Twili only blinked at him. "What are you people even doing? I don't understand!" The Twili frowned.

"You do know the truth is going to get out eventually, right? This kind of stuff never stays buried." Link couldn't stop the threat from creeping into his voice, and now the Twili man frowned deeply.

"I have a feeling that by the time the truth gets out, it's not going to make any difference," he said in that same whispery soft voice. He blinked slowly again as Link processed that information. His face furrowed in confusion.

"I don't… I don't understand," he repeated.

"Well then I guess you better get used to it, because I'm not telling." The Twili's face split into a wide smile, and he turned and walked away, Link left gaping at his back.

…

Link got outside and breathed in the smell of exhaust and people as they scurried around the streets. He checked his phone again to see if somehow, magically, it was not fucked up, but the screen was still filled with snow and patches of black. He sighed and stuffed it in his pocket. Sheik was techy; maybe he could fix it. He ambled down the stairs, his hands stuffed in his pocket. As he emerged from the shadow of the police station, he felt the chill of the interrogation room and that awful woman disappear, replaced by the warmth and light of one of the last days of summer. He breathed in again, then started down the street, avoiding eye contact like everyone else in the crowd.

When he had maybe gone twenty feet, the bulge in his pocket began to vibrate, and Link stopped and pulled it out. The screen flickered, and for a brief moment showed an S and a K where a name should have been. He quickly pressed where he remembered the call button to be, then held it up to his ear.

"Hey, what's up, my very rude friend?" he said tonelessly.

"I need ice cream, and I tried calling you like, five times." Link's face wrinkled, and he hesitated. Sheik huffed. "So are you done at the police station?" He looked back at the imposing building, close to towering over some small shops that had sprung up next to it, then started walking away again.

"Yeah, I'm done," he said quietly. "How's Midna?"

"Waking up with a sore throat, sooo… we need ice cream." Link chuckled softly.

"You didn't pick it up?"

"Forgot. She doesn't want to be alone either. Can you pick some up?"

"Yeah, I'll stop in somewhere." Link felt something nagging at him, but he continued to talk with Sheik when he heard a raspy laugh on the other end. The phone rustled a bit, then a hoarse voice started to speak.

"Hey, Link. Make sure it's chocolate." He snorted again.

"Sure, whatever you say-" The phone died with an abrupt snap, and Link looked at it balefully, sighing as he stuffed it into his pocket.

_I could go to Romani's…_ he thought with a twist of his lip.

_Link walked into Romani's and saw Zelda working the cash register. She didn't see him until she was done talking with the customer, a boy of maybe about ten with a bright red ballcap shoved down on a tangled mess of black hair. He laughed at something she said, then bounced over to where a girl in a pink dress about his age sat in a booth. Zelda looked down at the cash register, and her face crumpled alarmingly fast as she let out a sigh. Link walked up and leaned on the counter. She jumped when his hand darted into her field of vision, waving in front of her eyes._

"_Earth to Zelda?" She looked up and smiled. To Link, it seemed forced. It didn't reach her eyes, which normally crinkled whenever she grinned. Now that he looked at them, they seemed dulled. Purple bags sagged under her eyes._

"_Hey, what's up?" she asked quickly, noticing his intense stare as he tried to puzzle out why she looked so tired._

"_Not much. Zelda, are you okay?" She blinked again._

"_I'm fine." A rueful grin twisted her face. "Why?" He shrugged, spinning around and sitting on the counter. Zelda giggled and tried to push him off. _

"_Cremia's going to kill me if she walks in right now. Get off the counter." He continued to sit there, craning his head in to study her closer. Peach makeup had collected in the creases of her skin under her eyes, and she leaned away._

"_Seriously, I'm fine," Zelda said lightly. "You want a milkshake or something? Malon's making some for the kids over there; I'm sure she wouldn't mind making one extra." He shook his head, then finally started speaking._

"_Zel, are you sleeping alright?" A pink flush crept up into her pale face painfully slow, and she nodded._

"_Been sleeping fine," she mumbled, looking down at where her fingers were agitatedly lacing in and out of each other. Link's face twisted._

"_You are a terrible liar," he said softly. "What happened?" She shook her head, still staring at her hands._

"_It's nothing, I swear," she whispered, her voice almost drowned out by the sound of high, childish laughter coming from the only customers in the shop. Link hopped down from the counter and turned to her._

"_Can you not tell me? Is it a guy? Because I'll beat him up if you need me too," he offered somewhat cheerfully. She let out a small laugh, looking up at Link._

"_It's not anything in particular, it's just…" she sighed. "All the little things are piling up, and I'm just so tired all the time-" Zelda waved her hands halfheartedly around her head, as if that alone could demonstrate how great her stress was. "I know I just need to relax, but I can't shake it."_

"_That was delightfully vague." She laughed and pushed his shoulder._

"_It's the truth!" Zelda turned when a bright eyed, diminutive ginger poked her head through a door that read "Kitchen". She walked out, revealing herself to be around ten, wearing a miniature version of the baby tee Zelda was wearing. She amazingly balanced a tray carrying two full glasses on one hand while she straightened her shirt and flipped her long red hair. The two kids were nudging each other and pointing at what looked like two floating milkshakes behind the counter. The little ginger cleared her throat._

"_MY MILKSHAKES BRING ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD-" she started to bellow, stumbling out from behind the counter still holding the tray in one hand. She continued to belt out the lyrics as she shimmied over to the table where the other two kids were staring at her with huge, dark eyes._

"_They're like, it's better than yours! Damn right, it's better than yours!" The little girl plonked the tray down on the table with a big smile, then moonwalked back into the kitchen, shooting Zelda a little cheeky wave as she disappeared into the kitchen. Zelda was slumped over the cash register, laughing so hard she was crying, tears streaming down her face. Link was just staring at the still swinging door, his mouth open and his eyes wide._

"_Holy shit, what was that?" An older version of the ginger stumbled out, laughing hysterically. She clutched Zelda from behind, her face beet red and freckled._

"_Wasn't that great?" she cackled madly. "I dared her to do it!" She pulled apart, and Zelda slapped her a high five._

"_MALON!" Both Zelda and the ginger stiffened and stopped laughing, and Malon rushed back into the kitchen, snorting. A woman of maybe thirty walked into the room from another door marked "Office", her hair pulled into a ponytail and swinging as she stomped towards Zelda._

"_Where is she?" she asked in a weary voice. Zelda giggled as she pointed to the kitchen over her shoulder, and the woman glided inside, her pale face turning pink._

_She turned back to Link, her shoulders lighter and a genuine smile on her face._

"_I love this job. Keeps me young," she boasted, leaning over the counter to peer at the two kids still sitting in the booth with shell shocked expressions on their faces._

"_Are you guys okay?" she said loudly. The girl nodded, the boy just staring at the milkshake like it was infectious. Zelda sighed and stood normally again._

"_So what were you saying, Link?"_

"_You know. I forgot." He blinked rapidly. "Do you want to go get dinner tonight? Sheik was talking about craving tacos and whatnot." Her face brightened._

"_Sure, that sounds good." Link smiled, then waved a hand at the nearly empty ice cream shop._

"_Well, I guess I should leave. Looks like you'll need all hands on deck to deal with this rowdy crowd." He winked at the boy now greedily devouring his milk shake, and he shot Link a peace sign, complete with a huge grin. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, then started to amble out of the pink space._

"_Wait, Link!" He turned expectantly towards her._

"_Yeah?" She hesitated._

"_I have a question for you." She beckoned him closer, and he obliged, leaning against the granite countertop. _

"_What's up?" She paused and looked up at the ceiling, seemingly sending up a prayer to the gods before she took a deep breath and opened her mouth again._

"_Do you think it's possible for people... to know what's going to happen? Like from dreams or visions and stuff?" Her face was already halfway between a defensive expression and one of disappointment as well. She fidgeted as Link looked down at the speckled stone his hands rested on._

_His first thought was that she had completely lost her marbles. The Zelda he knew was all science, all logic, and laughed at supernatural horror movies. She normallyreasoned everything away with some explanation that she had heard somewhere, and scoffed at the very idea of Goddesses, shocking many people she knew with her blasphemy._

"_Do you mean like... prophecy? Fortune-telling?" Yet another two things Zelda despised. She gave a half hearted, defeated shrug._

"_Kind of. I don't know." Seeing the terrified, exhausted expression on her face, he acquiesced and didn't say anything more about it other than a half answer._

"_I really don't know. I guess anything is possible." He shrugged. Her face relaxed into a look of relief, and she grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly._

"_Thanks," she breathed, and Link nodded at her. She let go of his hand, her fingertips trailing over the tops of his hands. He shot her one last look before exiting the ice cream shop, his steps heavy as they fell on the sidewalk._

…

Link walked into Romani's, the bell hanging above the door ringing. The same redhead who had emerged from the kitchen screaming with laughter at her sister's antics was now leaning on the counter with a flat expression on her face. Her blue eyes sharpened when she saw Link, and she stood up and situated herself behind the counter.

"Welcome to Romani's. How may I serve moo today?" she said glumly. Her eyes searched Link's face, then they widened.

"You were one of Zelda's friends." He nodded solemnly.

"You're Malon, right?" She flicked the nametag attached to her breast before nodding.

"Yeah. So what do you need?"

"Chocolate." The exchange was made silently, the carton and money changing hands quickly and efficiently. Malon hesitated before giving Link his change.

"… Do you know who found her?" she said in a quiet voice. Link's stomach dropped a little before he shrugged. It must have shown on his face, because Malon's sagged a little. "I'm sorry I asked. I didn't know." She opened the cash register again and gave Link back his ten dollars. "I've got you, Link. Don't worry." She shot him a small smile, which he returned gratefully. The door to the kitchen opened a little, and the little girl who had come out singing off key and dancing without embarrassment poked her head out.

"Malon, when's Zellie gonna get here?" Malon's lips pressed into a tight line, and Link took that as his cue to leave the garishly pink shop.

…

Link signed in at the hospital, then asked the nurse on duty where Midna was. He was ushered into a room divided by curtains and filled with the sound of hacking and hushed talking. It immediately brought back bad memories, and his face went pale. The nurse waddled over to a stall towards the end of the hall, and Link pushed aside the curtain after forcing a smile. She blushed and walked away, calling out something in Gerudo to another nurse.

"Hey Link, what's up?" He held up the paper sack, grinning for real now. Midna's face split into a wide smile, and she raised her arms, fingers closing around empty air like a baby's. An IV was still stuck in her arm, but she didn't seem to notice. "Gimme!" she said hoarsely, and he tossed it to her, the bag landing in her lap with a small thud. She unwrapped it and immediately started to dig in.

"Fuck, this tastes so good," she moaned.

"You know we can get you a spoon, right?" Sheik's gravelly voice said from the corner of the cloth room. Link hadn't even noticed him when he walked in. Midna ignored him and continued to eat with her fingers. "That is so unsanitary…" he mumbled while he walked out of the room.

"It's not like this is going to make me sick!" she called out loudly. "That's already been done!" Sheik walked in moments later with a plastic spoon, which he passed to Midna.

"Please use this. Please." She shot him a chocolate covered smirk, then dragged a finger across her tongue, staring at him. She smacked her lips.

"Fine. Since it makes you so uncomfortable," she said lightly. Sheik rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

"So how are you doing?" Link asked Midna, his voice strained. She shrugged.

"Okay, I guess. It's been nice getting to know Sheik better," she purred, shooting him a look with half lidded eyes. He mumbled something, and she let out a raucous cackle.

"You know you like it." She pointed at him with the spoon, then turned back to Link. "But they say I can leave soon."

"That's good." She studied the spoon idly.

"Isn't it though," Midna whispered, her voice now quiet and scratchy. "Can I keep staying with you guys? You know, just until I get better?"

"Of course," Sheik said before Link could say anything. She shot him a sly smile.

"Thanks, Sheiky." She laughed again when his face twisted at the nickname, and Link almost felt like he was intruding on something. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, looking at his feet and breathing through his mouth to avoid smelling the scent of disinfectant and sickness.

"Hey, I'm just going to go home. Get some sleep." Midna looked at him gravely.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Just need… to not be here," he mumbled. "Don't like hospitals."

"Hey, with you there. Tell Maple I'll be gone a couple more days, and that I'm really sorry."

"She won't have a problem with it."

"Cool. Well… See you later, I guess," she offered up lamely, and he nodded at both her and Sheik, who gave him a nod in return as Link stumbled out of the hospital. He took the bus out as far as he could, then walked the three miles left of the way home, his thoughts throwing themselves around inside his head and slamming against his skull until he had a headache. He didn't even notice his feet falling on the ground in a tireless rhythm, just watched them without thinking about how exhausted he was or how hot it was outside next to the black tarmac of the street.

He saw the hospital, but instead of Midna's bluish hand lying against the puke green sheets, he saw a wrinkled, pruny hand instead, resting there lifelessly.

He saw Aveil Spears' smile, her teeth white and exposed and condescending.

And finally, Link saw Zelda's eyes staring at him blankly, the blue irises clouded over. That one flashed by the briefest, only for a split second, but those huge blue orbs stayed stuck in his subconscious, then pushed their way forward, not letting Link forget them.

They were the last thing he saw as he flopped down in his bed, the curtains drawn and his hands behind his head. Link sighed and settled down into the mattress, closing his eyes and trying to clear his mind as he breathed in and out as regularly as he could. He soon recognized the futility of his exercise, and his face scrunched up with failure.

Link's eyes came up, curled into fists to rub his eyes as he stretched, his feet hanging off the edge of the bed. His head throbbed with exhaustion, even though his body was only sore, not as tired as his mind was.

He just wanted to sleep, and not see those hands, that smile, those eyes that continued to loom before him and haunt-

"Dammit." Link slammed his fist against the mattress, his hand bouncing off before falling back to the sheets limply.

He probably laid there for close to two hours before finally succumbing to his desperate need for sleep. Like a child trying to stay awake for New Year's but failing miserably, his eyes slid closed, and he let them, gratitude flooding through his brain as he fell asleep.

…

A woman sat on a chair, her hands clutching something in her lap tightly. Her brunette hair twisted and tangled in the wind that suddenly started to blow through the darkness. The light above her seemed to waver and flicker, swinging back and forth as it was affected by the breeze. The woman let out a sigh, her shoulders heaving, and the chair she was seated in slowly started to turn around, her bowed face still concealed by her hair. The wind stilled, and then the woman picked up her head, her blue eyes wide and staring. Her lips were bright red against her pale skin, washed out by the single lightbulb hanging over her. She was naked except for a blood-stained, slashed camisole that hung off one shoulder. Whatever she was holding was covered by a small filthy dishrag, and something twitched under it briefly before lying still again.

The woman tilted her head to the side, looking straight ahead without seeing anything. She blinked languidly, then cracked a wide, strained smile directed straight ahead of her.

It would have been a beautiful grin, except that her gums were bleeding; pink stained, hemorrhaging teeth crumbling in their roots, blood trickling from her lips and dripping down her chalky white chin.

She continued to stare ahead and smile as if nothing was wrong, her hands desperately holding onto the small bundle in her lap. Her fingers squeezed tighter every so often, but then her unfocused gaze suddenly fixed on Link, wrenching one of her hands from the dishrag to point at him with a crooked claw of a finger. He flinched as if she had struck him, but she only continued to grin in an unsettling manner, beckoning to him. A strangled whine came from her throat, and she opened her mouth a little to reveal that her tongue was also bleeding and swollen, unusable. She struggled to speak, but no clear words came from her mouth. She seemed just barely calm. A frenzy was hidden in her eyes, waiting to spring out, and that made Link wary as he approached her. She bobbed her head happily, her hair waving as she grabbed the package in her lap once more possessively, as if she were afraid he might steal it. He got maybe about two feet from her before she motioned for him to stop.

He did as she asked, and stood there, as mute as she was, but still quieter. She hummed delicately to herself, the air around her seeming to shiver with some weird anticipation. Whatever was under the dishcloth pulsated and writhed in her grasp, but she only pulled it closer, a sudden terror in her blue eyes. She looked at Link with apprehension for a moment, but he couldn't say anything to her. His throat seemed to be closed. Her mouth opened and closed, blood trickling out of the corners of her already tainted lips, and she choked out a groan, finally unwrapping the cloth from the struggling bundle and pushing it towards him with outstretched arms and trembling fingers.

A heart lay in her hands, red and shining and pulsating. The rag was now soaked in crimson, and she shoved it towards him again when he took a shocked step back, an insistent groan spilling out of her maimed mouth.

"MMmmmhhheh eeeeehhh…" The pleading, needy sound died in her throat, her eyes wide as saucers. The heart beat frantically in her hands, the pounding, heavy sound flushing the air and turning it red every time it shuddered.

Lub. Dub.

"Neeeeeeeeerrrr…" she moaned.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

Link just now noticed the growing stain over her breast where her heart should have been.

Lubdub lubdub lubdub-

"Haaaaaakeeee eehhhhh, eeeeeennnhhuh!" she breathed out, the heart shaking as her hands did.

Lubdublubdublubdublubdublubd ub-

A harsh, wordless howl ripped its way from Zelda's throat, and Link's scream mirrored it as he finally tore himself from the dream and woke up, sitting bolt upright in his bed.

...

**Leedle leedle leedle... Disturbing dream is disturbing.**

**I giggled like an idiot when I was writing the milkshake scene, so thought you'd like to know that. This chapter suffers from serious mood whiplash. Sorry.**

**Next chapter features - a gaggle of old ladies. Please review and let me know what you think!**

**Lotsoglomps,**

**~Eva**


	6. Wrinkles in Wrinkles

**Disclaimer on profile.**

**See if you can guess what Stephen King book is referenced in this chapter. Also, bonus cookies to those who can guess what game I'm currently playing (hint/cameo in the last chapter).**

**Lots of angst and old people ahead. Slow chapter. Beware.**

* * *

His heart raced in his ears frantically, and sweat covered his forehead. Link buried his head in his hands with a low groan, then sank against the wall of his bedroom until he was hunched in the corner of the bed. His breath came out in a loud, shuddering gasp, and he gulped in air desperately until he felt like he couldn't take in anymore without exploding. He let out another shivering sigh, his body tensing, then slumping into the wall.

"Oh my gods…" he moaned, pulling at his hair restlessly. He couldn't even express how awful that was with words. Link honestly felt like he was going to throw up he was so sickened by what he had seen. He took several more deep breaths until he was sure his nausea had been quelled, then wiped the sweat off his forehead and uncurled from the upright fetal position he had devolved into. His legs now hung over the side of the bed, his feet planted firmly on the floor. He scooted up so he could see the clock on his bedside table.

12:01 am. Five hours of sleep, and yet he was still tired. His mind whirled in a tireless, terrified dance, refusing to calm itself-

(pink stained, hemorrhaging teeth crumbling in their roots, blood trickling from her lips and dripping down-)

Link groaned half in disappointment, half in disgust as that image flashed through his mind again, then didn't even make the effort to go back to sleep. He only pushed himself to his feet, then stumbled off to take a shower and hopefully wash the nightmare away.

…

Link staggered into Oak's around seven, rubbing his eyes and blinking at the bright lights inside.

"Hey Link!" Anju called out loudly. She jogged over and tackled him, and he stumbled back with a muted cry of surprise. She pulled back, her ginger bob swinging around her peaked face as she craned her head so she could look at his face. She had about three inches on most of the girls Link knew, and a good inch on Link himself.

"I heard what happened to Zelda! I'm so sorry!" She squeezed him again, rocking him back and forth. Link pushed her away tiredly.

"Thanks, Anju…" he said softly. "That's sweet of you." She gave him a slight smile, then patted the top of his head.

"Maple's in back. I'll go tell her you're here." The door slammed into her back as she walked through it, and Link ignored her muffled curse as he went to sit on one of the counter stools. He rested his head on folded arms as he slumped over, then closed his eyes for a moment. The burning sensation soon ceased, and he sighed in contentment, his face melting into an expression of relief.

It vanished when he heard the door to the kitchen swing open. He sat upright as quickly as he could without falling off the chair, his eyes flying open. Maple was already standing in front of him, a pleasant, wrinkly grin on her face.

"Look who decided to show up today!" she said brightly. He cracked a small smile.

"Hey, you said I could take the day off the day before yesterday."

"I know… It's just been tough with Kaefi and-" there was a loud sudden crash from the stockroom, then the sound of running feet. Anju's head poked out of the door.

"Sorry! I'll clean it up!" she squeaked, then ran off again. Maple's wince disappeared, and her brown eyes rolled up to the ceiling.

"Goddesses have mercy on that girl. She breaks everything she touches." She looked back at Link. "How have you been, dearest? I saw everything on the news about your poor friend." Her face crinkled into a frown. "I don't know who would do such a thing to such a nice girl." Link felt his face hardening into a blank mask, and he looked down at the counter, sighing.

"I've been okay, I guess. And I've been trying to answer that question myself." She reached out and grabbed his calloused hand with her wrinkled hand

(-lying on puke green sheets and not moving-)

and squeezed it.

"If you need anything, just let me know, sweetheart. Go easy today. You look terrible! Did you eat breakfast?"

…

Three hours and a stomach full of stolen waffles later (maybe stolen wasn't the right word – Maple had slipped them to him with a wink and a motion to go to the kitchen), Link was feeling a little better. Doing something and working had taken his mind off, well, everything. He had spent some time goofing off with Anju before customers had started to come in, and he had felt lighter after laughing, but at the same time, he felt guilty that he was being a doofus while everything else was such a mess.

Okay, "mess" was probably an understatement.

Then people started to trickle in, some wanting coffee before they went to work, others wanting breakfast, some just wanting company courtesy of Maple and all the other old folks who seemed to designate the diner as their skulking grounds. Even when the diner was close to empty, there was pretty much always at least one elderly person sitting in a booth reading a book with their face almost pressed to the page or the newspaper. The diner was in this almost empty state by the time Link's break rolled around. He finished pouring the old man with large hands a refill on his coffee, then sighed.

"There you go, Mr. Roberts." The old man gave him a wink, then went back to his two newspapers, squinting in quiet befuddlement at the smaller print. Link turned away, then yawned again, his eyes squeezing shut as his jaw nearly unhinged. He blinked to see Anju staring at him with her head tilted to the side.

"Dude, d'you need like, some coffee or something? You look like death." Link shook his head.

"I'd rather not have anything keeping me awake, thanks," he slurred out, slogging over to the counter and resting his head on it for a second. "Dammit, I'm so tired…" He felt Anju's hand ruffle his hair.

"It'll get better, I promise," she said softly. Link turned his head to look at her with narrowed eyes.

"How can you be so sure?" Her face suddenly took on a lost expression, and she opened her mouth, then closed it again.

"M-my brother died a year ago in a car crash." Link's jaw dropped open a little.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know." Anju shrugged.

"I really just kind of stopped thinking about him." She slumped down, her elbows resting on the counter and her hands clasped together. "At first, it really hurt – it felt like my heart

(-red and shining and pulsating-)

was torn or something. But after a while… it just stopped." She looked at Link, her eyes shining softly. "I wish I could have done something, but after a while, you just realize that..." she stopped talking for a second, collecting her thoughts. "Some things just happen, and there's nothing that you can do to really stop them." A dull ache spread through Link's chest, and for a second, he really did feel like his heart was broken. Every beat seemed drawn out, slamming against his ribs almost painfully.

"But… I could have stopped it," he whispered. Anju sighed.

"D'you have like, a guilt complex or something?" Link blinked.

"No! I'm serious." He lowered his voice when he saw Maple shoot them a glare. "She called me while I was sleeping," he muttered in a softer tone. "If I was awake, she could still be alive. I just… I can't get that out of my head." Anju was silent for a while, and Link didn't look her in the eye, only kept his gaze fixed on his hands while his face burned with shame.

"Link, you can't keep beating yourself up over this. It's going to eat at you forever if you let it."

"Maybe I want it to…" Anju grabbed his shoulders, and Link finally looked at her, shocked at the desperate expression on her face.

"Link, I know you. You're a happy person. You're a _good_ person! You can't let this ruin your life. You made a mistake; you're human, and it happens!"

"But my mistake cost my best friend her life! I can't just forget that!"

"But I'm also sure that she wouldn't want you to wallow in misery forever! Link, she wouldn't hold it against you."

"Well, how would you know? You didn't know her! You didn't hear how scared she was-" Link clamped his mouth shut and hissed through his nose, trying to let out his annoyance. She was just trying to help.

"Anju, thanks for trying to play therapist, but this is just something I need to get through, and it's not going to be, like, instantaneous." She frowned, her pale forehead crinkling.

"But Link, you need to take a look in the mirror. You look _awful_."

"What I need is some sleep, which I can get once I'm at home away from a certain redhead." He shot her a pointed look, and she deflated like a leaking balloon.

"Sorry." She shuffled away, her cheeks nearly as red as her hair and her head bowed. Link watched her go, guilt bubbling up slow and heavy inside him.

"Shit…" he groaned, laying his head back on the counter.

…

He must have fallen asleep for a couple of minutes, because his eyes creaked open when the bell over the door chimed. A voice rang out as clear and piercing as the bell.

"Maple! Maple, dear, we're here!" Link recognized the voice immediately and sat up quickly, shaking his head. He turned to see Koume and Kotake Rova, two of Maple's friends. He almost wanted to shield his eyes at the sight of their outfits, which matched in style, but clashed horrifically when it came to the colors. Link blinked as they saw him and tottered over.

"Hello Link, dear," Kotake said. Link could always tell which was which because of their necklaces. Kotake always wore a gold chain dripping with several smallish red stones. Link thought they were rubies, but that was really the only red stone he knew, so he couldn't be sure.

"Hello ma'am and ma'am," he said groggily, and Koume snorted. She wore the same silver chain adorned with pearls and blue gems. Sapphires?

"Dear, you know us. And oh my, what's wrong with you? You look like you didn't sleep a wink last night." Link shook his head.

"Don't want to talk about it." Kotake's face crinkled into a wicked grin.

"Oooo… was someone out being wild?" Link shot her a look. "It's okay; me and Sis were the life of the party back 'in the day.'"

"No," he said simply, then put his head back down on the counter. He heard them muttering about how rude he was being, but he ignored them as they made their way to the back of the diner where they usually sat. After a couple of minutes, he stood up and called to the kitchen, "Koume and Kotake are here." Anju's head popped into the small window with a grimace. She wasn't too fond of the elderly twins, as they were constantly making jokes about her height and hair.

"Thanks for the heads up," she said quietly, then sank back down into the kitchen. Maple burst out of the doors and bustled over to her friends, shooting the old man now folding up his newspaper and tucking under his arm a 'good day'. He gave her a mini salute, then shuffled over to the door. He held the door open for a stooped over, slightly overweight elderly woman wearing a purple shirt and black skirt that billowed around her ankles. Link shot her another look out of the corner of his eye when he noticed she was wearing a head scarf that covered almost all of her face except her eyes, which were a piercing shade of crimson almost identical to Sheik's.

_A Sheikah… Don't see too many of those in here…_ he thought, grabbing a menu for her and walking up to her. She made a beeline for the table where the Rova twins and Maple were seated, and Link slunk back to his stool to watch the strange woman. He swore that he had never seen her before, yet Koume let out a loud exclamation when she saw her, and Kotake scooted over to give her room. Maple shot Link a look, raising three fingers in the air. Link quickly brought them over, and after he had finished handing them out and promising that he would be back to get their orders in a couple minutes, the strange Sheikah grabbed his arm. Her gnarled fingers exerted a surprising amount of force, but Link was too shocked to even try to pull away.

"What is your name, young one?" she said in a thick voice.

"Uh, Link."

"Oh, this is Fanadi. Me and Sis met her while we were out shopping. She runs the most amazing little store – oh! You should do a reading on him!" Kotake exclaimed, her golden eyes wide with excitement under her white bangs. Fanadi blinked at him when he gave her a questioning look. She still hadn't released his hand.

"She reads palms and tarot cards, and she also can see the future," Koume testified, placing a hand over her heart. "I swear on the Book of Mudora, she's the real deal." Link could hear Zelda in his head crying bullshit, but he ignored her, shrugging.

"Why not?" No sooner than he spoke did Fanadi close his eyes and wrench his hand over so his palm faced up. The red crescents his nails had made a few nights ago were still there. Her sharp eyes stayed closed as she ran her fingers over his palm, tracing over the wrinkles in his hand.

"Elihwa sekat gnidaol tiaw, elihwa sekat gnidaol tiaw," she muttered behind her cowl. Maple was watching the proceedings with interest, while the Rova twins had smug expressions on their faces. Link's eyes darted from his smarting palm to the woman's face. A blonde fringe had begun to fall from under the top of her hood. Finally, her eyes opened, glazed over as if she were in a trance.

"This I know – the goddesses have much in store for you, and the wheel of destiny has begun to turn. The red threads of fate tangled around you will draw tighter with each turn of the wheel, but you must not let them strangle you, young one. You must shoulder your fate and soldier on for the good of all, or else the world as we know it will end. Also, I am sorry for your current loss and for all the ones that you will experience," she said in a mournful tone, then released his hand. It dropped limply to his side, and there was silence around the small table for a moment.

Link stammered out something about drinks, then rushed off to the kitchen, his face burning.

…

Kaefi came to relieve him later that day, and Link gladly took his leave, waving goodbye to the four old women still cloistered in the back booth. They shot him looks and waves, then whispered to each other secretively, glancing at him as he exited the diner.

He drove home in silence, not bothering to turn on the radio. When he got home, the door was open, and Midna was sleeping on the couch, her face buried in the cushions. She sighed in her sleep and turned over, her face peaceful and relaxed. Link smiled at her, then walked into Sheik's room. The space was pin straight spotless. He was sitting with his back to the door in the center of the room, his legs crossed and his palms resting on his knees.

"Sheik?"

"Yeah?" came the steady reply.

"Do you think you can try to fix my phone?" He turned a little, one red eye cracking open.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Everything."

"Good. I like a challenge. Set it on the desk next to the computer." Link tossed it there with a clatter, and Sheik snorted.

"If you treat it like that, no wonder it's broken." Link sighed.

"It wasn't my fault…"

"Sure. Whatever. Leave now please." Link rolled his eyes, but obliged, closing the door as softly as he could. He padded off to his room and flopped down on the bed. The clock read 6:00 when his head hit the pillow. It was almost 9:00 when he finally stopped tossing and turning and fell asleep.

…

_Link…_

The red threads of fate tangled around him pulled tighter around his neck, cutting off his air and making him panic as they started to strangle him-

_Link, sweetie, wake up…_

He wriggled his hands frantically to try and pull them away from his neck, but his hands were held to his body by the same red threads, tangled around him-

_It's only a dream, dearie… Wake up…_

The sensation of a cool hand on his forehead came along with the creaking old voice, and Link blearily opened his eyes.

"Grandma?" he said before he could fully wake up, and there was a low chuckle. The hand vanished slowly, and the sudden absence finally drew Link into full awareness. He blinked, sitting up and looking around the empty room. He swiped a hand across his forehead, but felt nothing unusual. That's when he shot a glare at the wretched alarm clock sitting next to him and groaned out loud.

1:00 am. Work was in five hours.

He sincerely hoped that this wasn't going to become a regular thing as he laid down in the nest of blankets his uncontrollable thrashing had created and fruitlessly tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

**Oh don't worry Link... It will... *evil grin***

**Lol, did I scare some of you guys off with that last nightmare? My reviews dropped a little. Just thought that was funny. I swear that won't be a regular occurrence, but that dream will be important later.**

**Much thanks to Leina16 and Princess Zelda-figure skater, who are two new reviewers from the chapters past :D**

**Plot starts to pick up more in the next chapter! Stay tuned!**

**~Eva**


	7. A Canine Grin

**I don't own Zelda.**

* * *

For the rest of the week, Link was like a zombie, and if Midna's makeup wasn't slightly bluish to go with her skin, he would have asked her if she could have touched up his face so people would stop asking if he was okay.

They saw the purple bags under his eyes, and they immediately assumed something was wrong – well, nothing was. He was alright until people bothered him about it. Then it turned into him fumbling for excuses while they looked on, a mixture of pity and sympathy in their eyes. He wished they understood that he didn't need either, but they just tutted in mock understanding, which just made him angrier. He hissed under his breath as he remembered while helping Maple prepare ingredients in the kitchen, and the hamburger patty in his hands turned into a negative model of the inside of his fist. Maple quickly noticed, and she touched his shoulder.

"Link, calm down, honey. That beef has done nothing to you." She said nothing more as she added the patty she was shaping to the wax paper in front of her. He let out an angry breath, then closed his eyes and tried to think calm thoughts. They stopped, then started staggering again, this time at a much slower, much more tranquil pace. She studied him, and when he opened his eyes, she smiled at him.

"Bad day?"

"Bad week is more like it," he murmured. "I just can't sleep, and I don't know why, because I feel exhausted, and I want to sleep, but I just… wake up. Around one or two, and I can't go back to sleep." She nodded sympathetically.

"You know what you need to try? Chamomile tea. Relaxes the nerves," she said. Link wrinkled his nose.

"Gross. I hate tea." She swatted his shoulder.

"You grump, I'm trying to pass advice down to the next generation!" she exclaimed. "Please try it!" He sighed.

"Fine." She settled happily as she continued to shape patties, then filled the last space on the wax paper.

"Link, go put these in the fridge for a little bit while we make more." He nodded, and started the trip to the walk in freezer. He saw Anju talking with a customer, gesturing wildly with her pen and pad as she spoke. He smiled wanly at the sight, then he started when he faced forward and saw a huge wolf standing in front of the freezer door. His tongue lolled out of his mouth, and his fur sparkled in the bright lights of the diner. He stood almost up to Link's chest, and his sharp teeth glinted in what almost looked like a smile. The most striking thing about him though were his angular, glowing blue eyes that stood out against his fur. They sparkled with an almost human like intelligence, and they seemed to speak to Link even though the wolf said no words.

[WATCH YOURSELF] a deep voice echoed in Link's head. [BAD. PROTECT. MUST. BAD THINGS WILL GET YOU. MUST RUN FAST FAST FAST.] The wolf then growled and let out a harsh, loud bark, and Link jumped back and dropped the tray with a metallic clang. Anju, her hand on her heart and her mouth open from a small shriek, and her customer turned to stare at Link accusingly, but his gaze was still fixed on the wolf.

[WATCH. NO FORGET] he growled, then jumped at Link, who flung his arms up to shield his face. He felt hot breath on his face, and then a whisper of a howl through his body. He cracked his eyes open, then lowered his arms and turned around.

"Did you… did you see anything there?" he said haltingly, knowing what their reactions would be even as he spoke with a sinking feeling. Both Anju and the customer shook their heads, their eyes wide, and Maple stuck her head out the door to see what the noise was about.

"What's- Oh, Link!" she cried, rushing over to the upended tray. "Dammit! Why'd you drop these?" Link looked down at the pink blobs of meat on the floor, and his shoulders shrunk as Maple glared at him.

"I'm sorry. It was an accident," he mumbled, getting on his hands and knees to try and clean up the mess. Maple joined him under the counter.

"Link, you need to get some sleep," she whispered. "I can't have you doing this every day." He sagged, stopping his half-hearted clean-up.

"I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened." She placed her hands on her knees and stared for a second at him.

"Well, you have the day off tomorrow, so please, try and recover as much as you can. I'm sorry I cursed at you, but this isn't professional, and it's wasteful." Maple frowned, and Link nodded.

"I promise it won't happen again. Cross my heart and hope to die."

…

Link was driving home when he turned and saw that the wolf was crammed into his passenger seat, smiling that same toothy grin at him. He let out a yelp of surprise, half turning off the road until he slammed on the brakes and pulled himself short. He screamed again when something smashed into the back of his car, jolting him forward into the waiting airbag that had exploded into being from his steering wheel. There was a crunch and grind of metal twisting and a loud blaring horn.

Link was momentarily stunned, and then he heard angry swearing and the sound of a car door swinging open. He picked his head up groggily, feeling blood start to trickle from his nose, and pushed open the door of his car slowly, pinching his nostrils together.

"Hey asshole! Why did you stop right in the middle of the fucking road?!" someone yelled, and Link heaved himself out of the car, swaying on his feet and turning towards the furious voice. A freckled, short man maybe around his age was standing where his car and Link's car had met in a fantastic crumpling of sheet metal, his hands curled into fists and crossed angrily over his thin chest.

"I'm waiting!" he spat. "What the hell were you doing?!" Link winced as he pulled his hand away from his nose and inspected it for more blood. He didn't think it was broken, but from the amount of blood covering his fingers and palm, he wasn't sure. He pinched it closed again, then held his other hand up.

"Look man, I'm really sorry-" The ginger cut him off.

"Is sorry going to fix my car?! My wife is eight months pregnant, and she could have been killed-" Link felt a sinking feeling in his stomach, and he tried to open his mouth to talk again, but a woman with short brown hair swayed over behind the ginger. The tips were dyed a bright green, and her belly was swelled to huge proportions. She was the same height as the man, but she lacked his anger. She only looked concerned.

"Mido, calm down. I'm fine," she said in a pleading voice. "Solve this like a civilized person." She grabbed his arm gently and stepped in front of him.

"Hello there. Are you okay?" Link nodded, his nose still clamped shut. Her face crumpled in worry.

"You look like you haven't slept in days." Her voice was kind, but Link still couldn't help but feel a surge of irritation.

"I'm fine, I promise. Look, I'll pay for any repairs. This was my fault."

"Damn right it was," Mido muttered, and Saria squeezed his arm tighter.

"That sounds wonderful, thank you." She stepped forward to shake his hand, and he grabbed it. It was cool and soft, with small amounts of dirt trapped under her short fingernails.

"I'm Saria Kiri, and this is my husband Mido. We're up here from Faron province." She gave him a wan smile.

"Link Greene, I live around here." He returned her smile with the same small enthusiasm, and she studied his face for a moment. Her thin fingers curled around his wrist and pulled his hand away from his face. With her other hand, she caressed his nose with a single finger. Link felt a spark travel through his skin, and with a small snap, the dull throb in his nose vanished. The blood dripping from his nose was siphoned away, and his mouth fell open.

"How did you-" she held a finger to her lips, her smile wide and mischievous this time. She turned slowly, then floated back to Mido, whispering something in his ear. He pulled out a pen from his pocket, grunting, and she walked back, holding her hand out as a signal to give his to her. He let her and watched bemusedly as she scribbled a number on his palm, the pen digging into his skin. She avoided the mostly healed pink marks on his skin, then released his hand and gave him the pen and opened her hand.

"Just call us when you have the money. I think we can still make it back to Deku without too many problems," she said as Link wrote on her hand. "We'll call you once we get a good estimate." He nodded, his heart sinking as he thought of the money he had in the bank – not much. She gave him one last kind smile, then sashayed back to Mido. She said something quickly, then they both got back in the car. Link saw Mido swear and beat on the steering wheel several times, but eventually, he got the car started, and they drove away, Saria waving goodbye through the cracked windshield. Link watched them go, then got back in his car and continued the drive home, thinking angrily about the stupid wolf that kept badgering hi-

What was he talking about? IT WASN'T REAL, so how could it be badgering him? It was just a figment of his over exhausted mind, and all he needed to fix this problem was some sleep. And good sleep too, not filled with all this freaky bullshit that kept haunting him night after night.

…

He walked in, inspecting the tin of tea that he had bought from this freaky store on his way home, taking Maple's advice. His nose wrinkled as he opened the tin and took a long sniff. Farore, he hoped this was worth it.

"Hey Mr. Sunshine, what's up?" Midna called from the couch where she had become a semi-permanent fixture along with the pile of dirty tissues on the table. The TV was on, but she was really watching Sheik do yoga to the side of the TV. He was twisted in a seemingly impossible position, but his breathing was relaxed and his eyes were lightly closed. Link set the tin down on the counter.

"I got in a car crash." Midna's eyes widened.

"Holy shit, are you okay?" One of Sheik's eyes cracked open.

"He's walking. He'll recover."

"I don't think my wallet will," Link complained as he walked over and flopped on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Midna reached over and patted his arm.

"It'll be fine eventually." He shrugged. "At least you have the day off tomorrow." His eyes flicked over to her.

"Yeah, I guess. Hey, do you know how to make tea?" she nodded. "Can you help me make some, and then make me drink it?"

"Sure. I'm bored as hell," Midna said, sneaking another peek at Sheik. Link rolled his eyes as she heaved herself up off the couch.

"Why are you drinking tea anyway?"

"Maple says this kind helps you relax, and so did the creepy lady at the store I bought it from." Midna clattered through cabinets, then tossed the pot at his head. Link ducked at the last second.

"What the hell?!" he shouted, and Sheik let out a frustrated sigh.

"Trying to clear my chakras here. Some peace would be appreciated." Link lowered his voice, but his face contorted in anger as he hastily picked up the pot.

"I said I would help. I'll help by supervising," Midna said, grinning and shaking the tin. "Now c'mon. Let's make this stuff."

…

Link forced himself to drink two cupfuls of flowery stuff before he decided that he couldn't take anymore and dumped the rest of the third cup down the sink. Midna had actually decided that she liked it, and so she was finishing off the pot as Link decided to try and go to bed.

His hands were folded under him and his head was to the side, and he felt his eyelids grow heavy after what seemed like countless hours of counting sheep.

[WATCH OUT] a deep rumble sounded through his head just as he was about to go to sleep, and Link started awake, his eyes wide open as he looked out the window and saw the wolf staring at him excitedly, his blue eyes sparking in the dark.

[WATCH OUT]

"Leave me alone," Link said groggily, shoving his head under his pillow and holding it over his ears. He felt heavy paws on his spine and then hot breath on the back of his neck.

[WATCH OUT. BAD. RUN FAST FAST FAST.] The voice was deafening in his head, and Link scrambled to sit up, furious at having been woken up from his almost sleep.

"Godsdammit, I already knew that!" Link spun around and sat up, but his room was empty besides him. He looked out the window, but the wolf wasn't there either. He sank down into his mattress with a heavy sigh, running his hand down his face.

He fell asleep two hours later at midnight, still grumbling as his mind wrapped around the idea of that crazy-ass wolf that only he could see.

…

The picture focused in slowly, and then brightened. The sun shone, but Link felt no heat on his back. The strands of the woman's hair hanging from her high bun moved sluggishly in the slight wind, but Link felt no breeze. He recognized the woman quickly to be Saria, her once rotund stomach only slightly protruding and her hands wrist deep in dirt. She laughed happily and covered her face with one soil stained hand.

"Mido, get that thing out of my face; I'm filthy!" she squealed. There was a deep chuckle from behind Link, but he couldn't turn around to see Mido.

"Well, you look pretty damn beautiful to me."

"Oh stop it," Saria said. Her cheeks flushed a deep pink.

"We need to take pictures of how much fun we had before the kid got here! Then he can know how much fun we had before him!" Saria giggled, then pointed a dirt crusted trowel at him.

"I'm just working in the garden, silly. And it's a girl. I can tell you that right now."

"How can you tell?"

"Mother's intuition," Saria shot back quickly, her gaze moving back down to the ground as she plunked a seedling into the small hole she had dug. "And whatever gender the baby is, they will be beautiful."

"Yes, because they have you as a mother." She blushed furiously again.

"Dear gods, Mido, stop flattering me." She still smiled brightly at the voice. "You're not so bad looking yourself." She hunched back over the plant, and the camera flashed brightly, the scene going dark for a moment before re- illuminating.

The view was shaky this time, red numbers flashing at the top of Link's vision. A reflection of a lens stared back at him, but beyond that, there was Saria, still kneeling in the garden and fondly handling a seedling before she put it in the ground. A beatific smile was displayed on her face, and simple, yet beautiful song without words drifted to Link through a crack in the window as she piled dirt around it. She leaned over to kiss its tiny green leaves, and a gold and green necklace fell out of her shirt, glittering in the spring sun.

She stood up then, tucking the necklace back in her shirt absentmindedly, and walked back to the house, a dazed, yet content smile on her face. Mido cursed quietly, and the view of the outside turned to view of the kitchen, and then finally darkness as the camera was turned off. The darkness stayed around Link, inky and black until two bright, cerulean orbs blinked open in front of him. Link felt himself scuttling backwards frantically, and the rumble ripped through the darkness again.

[RUN FAST FAST FAST. SAVE. BAD THINGS. HAPPEN SOON.] There was an echoing bark, and then Link's eyes flew open. He sat up quickly and then looked at the clock. Three in the morning. New record. He groaned, then flopped back down and tried to go to sleep, the wordless song the green-haired girl sang still echoing in the back of his head as he tossed and turned restlessly throughout the rest of the night.

* * *

**The two references were Earthbound (Paula and Ness were enjoying some milkshakes at Romani's) and Insomnia by Stephen King (Ralph Roberts was drinking some coffee). Nobody guessed :P**

**I have a proposition - if the review count gets up to fifty for this chapter, then I will post the same day it reaches that count. It took me about two hours to write this chapter, I just had to get around to it. I will do it again. 12 reviews to a chapter... That would be some good motivation. I highly doubt this will happen, but please. Entertain the notion. It would be very nice.**

**Also, Saria and Mido will be important next chapter and beyond. This was simply their introduction to the plot, along with the wolf's. Any guesses as to who he is?**

**Until next time my luffly readers,**

**~Eva**


	8. Ruby Blood and Golden Emeralds

**I don't own Zelda. Warning, some disturbing content towards the end, and a fight between Link and Midna :(**

* * *

Link gave up trying to go back to sleep around seven in the morning and opened his eyes, annoyed at the sunlight outside streaming through his window. He rolled off his bed and hit the floor with a thunk that shook his bones, groaning. Midna opened the door a crack.

"You okay?" She stepped inside, kicking away a pile of clothes standing in her way. Link, his arm flung over his eyes, grunted.

"Don't mess with my stuff. I won't be able to find it." Midna looked around the pigsty of a room.

"Can you find anything now?" He turned his head and blinked at her.

"Of course. I know exactly where everything is." He shook his head. "It might take me a sec to remember, but I have a very clear map in my head." Midna held up a rubber ducky on the floor.

"Okay, if you know where things are, do you know _why_ they are here?" She squeezed the rubber toy, and it squeaked dolefully.

"No, I do not." She tossed it aside and walked over to the bed, jumping over Link and sitting with her feet resting on his stomach. She looked down at him.

"You look marginally better today. Did that tea do anything for you?" Link shrugged.

"Maybe. I had a niceish dream for the first time in a couple days." He looked up at her and noticed that Midna's face wasn't as pale, and that she was smiling the slightest bit.

"You look better too."

"Yeah, I feel like it." She let out a sigh, swinging her feet. "It'll be good to go back to work. I haven't been this sick in ages." Midna rested her head on her knees, then said out of the blue, "Do you know when Zelda's going to be buried?" Link sat up a little, propping himself up on his elbows.

"I have no idea. Does she have any family? I know she was living by herself-" He was cut off when Midna shook her head silently.

"Her mom died when she was little, and her dad passed away about a year ago. I think she has a cousin in the Waker Isles, but that's it." Link felt his cheeks heat up. He let himself fell back down, his head cushioned by his jeans from the day before.

"I never knew that."

"I only knew because one day I went over the night after her dad died, and she was crying. She didn't want to tell me, but I made her." She sighed. "She would have hated being plastered all over the news like she's been."

"Really? I haven't been watching," Link said faintly.

"Well, I have, and it's completely insane." Midna's face twisted, and she repeated, "She would have hated it."

"Can we please stop talking about this? It makes me want to punch something," Link grumbled, pushing himself up off the floor. Midna tucked her feet up on the bed and watched him stand up and rub his hands on his shirt. He heard the clicking of nails on glass, and his head snapped up to see the wolf staring at him through the window, his head cocked to the side as he studied him. Link froze, his eyes wide, and Midna turned and stared at what appeared to her to be an empty window.

"Link," she said slowly. "What are you looking at?" Link didn't answer, but his face did twist into a half snarl as the wolf began to scratch on the window and whine pitifully.

"Link, snap out of it!" Midna pushed herself off the bed and grabbed his shoulders, shaking them slightly. He started, shaking his head and staring at Midna, who was looking at him with alarm.

"What the hell were you looking at?" He opened his mouth and found he didn't have an answer, so he just clamped his jaw shut and shook his head.

"It was nothing. I thought I saw something." Her brow wrinkled.

"You need to watch yourself. People are gonna think you're crazy." She ruffled his blonde hair, then bounced out of the room, muttering something about making more tea. Link shook his head again, then snuck another glance at the window. Nothing was there, just as it should have been. He clambered on top of his bed for a closer look, and when he saw wet smudge marks made by the wolf's nose, he frowned. He settled back on his heels and closed his eyes for ten seconds, breathing carefully through his nose. When he opened them again and inspected the window, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Link let out a sigh, disgusted with himself, and stalked off to take a shower.

…

He walked out of his room awhile later, wearing fresh clothes to go with his wet hair. He heard Midna's angry voice, and then an unfamiliar voice trying to reason with her.

"-Look, I don't want to talk to you. No one here does, so get out or I'm calling the cops-"

"-Miss, please, I just want to ask some questions-"

"What's going on?" Link asked as he walked up behind Midna, who was attempting to shut the door on someone who had their foot stuck obstinately between the door and the frame. She put her back up against the door and pushed, grunting.

"It's a reporter. He wants to ask us questions about Zelda." Link's face twisted in a frown, and he immediately went to help Midna shut the door, kicking the man's foot out of the doorway and holding it shut while she locked it.

"Asshole. If he doesn't leave soon, I'm calling the cops on him." Midna continued to swear under her breath as she went to the bubbling pot on the stove. Link watched the silhouette of the man move between the windows by the door, and he snuck up to the door and snuck a look through the peephole. He saw a skinny little man wearing an orange tie. His eyes were a very dark brown, and he was trying to peek through the peephole as well. Link pulled back in distaste and walked away. He looked back when he heard a rustling coming from under the door. A sad looking business card was being shoved through the crack in the door, and Link wrinkled his nose in distaste and pulled it the rest of the way through. He studied it carefully.

**Kallo Marionetti**

**Reporter, _Hylian Times_**

**986-5466-8675**

He flipped it over, and large, nearly illegible handwriting was scrawled all over the back.

_If you feel like talking, I would love a blurb. I'll try again later._

Link grunted and crumpled the card up, throwing it over his shoulder and joining Midna at the table. A scowl was etched on her face as she dipped the stained teabag in and out of the steaming mug in front of her.

"If he comes back, I am going to rip his balls off and make him eat them." He chuckled slightly.

"Good luck with that." She shook her head, irritation still showing in the set of her shoulders.

"This is all just a mess. I hate it."

"Same." She snuck a glance at Link. His eyes were closed, and his hands were folded on his lap as he leaned back in his chair.

"So why haven't you been sleeping? Any reason?" she asked. He opened one eye.

"I have no idea. I just wake up after I have these really weird dreams."

"How are they weird?" His lip curled as he remembered.

"They're just… violent. And nasty."

"Is Zelda in any of them?" He hesitated, and Midna gave him another look, then went back to focusing on her tea when he noticed.

"Yeah," he finally admitted. "A couple. And then in another I saw that other chick – what's her name?" He snapped his fingers as he tried to remember.

"Fi Masters?" He nodded.

"That's it. I saw her in one of them too."

"What were they doing?" She had finally stopped fiddling with her tea, and now stared at him. His eyes shifted around, and his palms grew sweaty.

"I saw Fi dying… And Zelda was giving me her heart. Like, she had ripped it out of her own chest, and she was handing it to me… She couldn't even talk, and it was just… awful." Midna's eyes were wide.

"Holy shit. Link, do you need to see a shrink about this?"

"No!" He held up his hands defensively. "It'll stop soon, I've just been feeling guilty and stuff…"

"Do you still feel guilty?"

"Well, yes-" Midna cut him off, her voice harsher and more intense.

"Then you need to go see a doctor and talk things out, because I don't think this is going to get any better. You need to sleep, you need to stop having nightmares, and you need to get over your guilt." Her eyes stared out the window as she lifted the mug to take a sip.

"But Midna, it was my fault-"

"Dammit, Link, this is what I'm talking about! You need to stop saying that!" Midna slammed the mug down on the table. Nearly clear liquid slopped over the side, and she snatched her hand away, cursing as her hand was singed. She rubbed her hand as she met his eyes again, and he was staring at her stonily.

"Look. It could have been your fault. But also, what would have happened if you had gotten over to her house in time? Would you have saved her, or would both of you have been carted out of there in body bags?" She glared back at him, her eyes narrowed. "Zelda can't and would not blame you, Link. What's done is done, and she wouldn't want to see you like this, trust me. If you keep ripping yourself apart like this, it's going to kill you, and if she could see it... it would kill her too." Her voice faltered over the final five words, and her face twisted.

"But-"

"No! Just... listen for a second. You need to get better, so you need to see someone and talk to them."

"I'm talking to you," Link said stubbornly.

"Link, I have no fucking idea what I'm talking about. I'm just trying to help you as your friend. I cannot psychoanalyze you and know exactly what to do to make you better, because I'm a mess too, and I have no idea-"

"Well, then why the hell are you trying to fix me?!" Link shouted, his hands curling into fists on top of the table.

"I'm just telling you what Zelda would have thought! I knew her a hell of a lot longer than you did!" Midna barked, grabbing his wrist when he stood up. "Please, Link. I'm trying to help! It hurts me to see you so tired and depress-" she cut herself off before she could say the last word, then continued, talking more softly now, her voice still urgent. "Just do yourself a favor and get _help_." She was crying freely, angry tears running down her pale blue cheeks. She sniffed and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, releasing Link's hand and settling back into her chair. Link turned and walked into his room, slamming the door behind him so hard it made the house shake.

…

Link sat there and fumed for a while, staring at the ceiling. He finally saw his laptop sitting on the chair. He stood up and retrieved it, opening it while balanced on his knees. He stared at his screensaver for a moment, then quickly opened up a search engine and typed in "insomnia." This brought up hundreds of thousands of hits, and he wrinkled his nose at the thought of sifting through all of them. Quickly making his decision, he clicked on the first link. It was from the Hyrule Institute of Sleep and Sleep Disorders, so hey. It was probably pretty good.

His eyes narrowed at the small type, and only a couple words stuck in his head when he tried to read the first paragraph. Sleeplessness. Concentrating. Perception. His head ached when he tried to focus harder, and he eventually just closed the laptop and threw it on the pile of clothes it had rested on before he had disturbed it. He fell backwards on his bed, rubbing a hand over his face.

He supposed he should go talk to Midna. Apologize. Take her advice. Go to a shrink or support group or whatever.

But he just… couldn't. He felt like he had to tackle this alone. He _was_ alone. Midna was Zelda's friend too – far longer than he had been, as she had pointed out during their argument – and she wasn't having these messed up dreams. She was sleeping fine.

But Zelda hadn't kissed Midna. She had pulled _him_ around to the side of the house, and she had kissed _him. _Even though she was gone, surely that still meant _something_.

Maybe that was why he felt so beaten down and sad. She was beautiful; she was smart; she was understanding and sweet, always nice to him and everyone she met; yes, he would have liked to get to know her as more than friends, especially if she was into it, she initiated it. But before he had the chance to explore that possibility with Zelda, she had been cruelly snatched away. Was that why he felt so empty, so depressed?

… Was he depressed?

He supposed he could be. Yes, it was very possible. Was insomnia a symptom of depression? Were the nightmares a symptom too? Maybe this was all just part of the process of losing someone close to you…

Maybe this was completely normal. He had just seen Fi grouped together with Zelda on the news out of the corner of his eye, and his subconscious had dredged her up from the bottom of his brain. He was guilty over Zelda, so he had had a nightmare where she screamed at him, just like he imagined she would. Mido and Saria were obviously happy together, so he dreamed about them because… he was jealous? Maybe? And then the wolf and his grandma Pearl waking him up… Well, he was averaging about three or four hours of sleep a night – he was bound to see some crazy shit. He would look that up later, once the words stopped swimming on the page, and his head stopped hurting whenever he tried to concentrate. He relaxed a little then, sinking into his mattress with a small sigh of relief.

After only a few seconds, his vision started to flicker an alarming grey at the edges, and Link frowned. He tried to sit up, but he felt like lead was replacing the blood in his veins, making them so heavy he couldn't even lift them. He felt his mouth opening with a faint croak as his field of vision washed over with a coat of grey, smeared over and over and over until his eyes were covered by the darkest of blacks.

And at first, everything remained black, but slowly, a house with a fence and a gate swam into view as if they were being painted with some huge paintbrush. It was one of the tiniest two stories Link had ever seen, and the car out front was cheap and crumpled, but the house and the small garden in front were well cared for. Bright yellow daffodils and lilies waved hello in the dim. Link took a single step forward, pushing open the gate, and he found he was right in front of the door in a flash, the varnished wood swimming and shimmering in an unreal fashion.

When he reached out to touch it and push it open, there was a loud howl from behind him. He wasn't startled by it, but he still turned around, one eyebrow raised at the massive grey wolf staring at him. His red tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted, and his blue eyes seemed to glow in the dark, piercing. Link tilted his head to the side, and the wolf mirrored him, his mouth closing for an instant only to open again. Both human and canine breathing thundered through the eerie silence, and Link swallowed heavily.

"Go on, shoo." He waved his hand at the wolf, his voice hoarse and his fingers shaking. The wolf straightened, its blazing blue eyes for once cold as ice, and the happy, almost grin on his face now gone. "Don't give me that look." Every word felt like a condemnation, falling through the air like heavy, whistling rocks. "I'll deal with you later." The wolf fixed him with one final, crumbling stare, and it stood, its tail drooping and its ears pulled flat against its skull. It shuffled away, its tail tucked between its legs before it scrambled over the fence. It sprinted away then, howling a dirge as it vanished into the cloud that hung around the small house.

Link sighed as he turned back to the house and walked to the entrance. The door was unlocked, and he walked inside to a small room. He couldn't tell what its former purpose was; the place had been gutted, and there was no sign that any furniture was ever there. There were just blank, white walls that stretched to an arching ceiling. Link looked up at it as he walked through the room and to an opening in the wall that served as a way into the next room. When he was about to walk through it, he heard the weeping. High and keening and desperate, it pierced through the air with frantic, wordless sobs.

Link craned his head through the doorway, breathless as he tried to listen for where the source was hiding. The next room was as empty as the first one, but as Link walked to the stairs tucked away in the corner of the room, he saw something glittering on the ground. He bent down, getting on his hands and knees to inspect it, and he saw a trio of red droplets sitting oh so innocently on the wooden floor. They were so dark, so rich a color, they were barely red anymore.

He lifted his head, looked up towards the stairs, and he saw several other similar spatters leading to the stairs and then making their halting way up the steps. He scrambled to his feet, then followed them slowly, inching his way first up the steps, then down a narrow hallway. All the doors hung slightly ajar, showing the same eerie picture painted in the floor below – all of them were empty. The crying, having stopped for a couple of terrifying seconds, now came back full force, and Link craned his head up to look at the ceiling, where it seemed to be coming from. He saw a multitude of holes punched through the plaster, and then he saw it. An outline of a set of those stairs that dropped and led to an attic. As soon as he had finished fumbling for that connection, they dropped open slowly and gave him access. He hesitated for a moment, then saw that the trail of blood had also stopped here, and some of the wooden steps on the ladder were stained that deep red, so dark it was nearly black, stagnant and dying-

Link swallowed thickly, then began to mount the ladder, following the sound of the crying, which had now escalated into full on wailing. When his head poked up through the square opening, he saw a long, narrow attic, two small, circular windows on either end letting light through. It was this silver moonlight that threw a stark shadow on the floor, cast by a hunched over, lumpy silhouette on the farthest end of the room. Link scrambled into the attic all of the way, then stood, slightly stooped so he wouldn't bash his head against the exposed beams of the ceiling. The crying, almost siren-like in the way it had rose and fell, went silent and died into heavy sobs. Link inched his way towards the silhouette, and he saw the pool of dark red, dying blood surrounding it before he could make out any of the features. When he had reached the back of the figure, he saw a pale spine topped by short, frizzled hair, arched over two unmoving, freckled legs. Link's breath caught in his throat, and he slowly circled around so he could see what exactly-

He almost screamed when he saw what had become of Mido's torso and face. Link clapped his hand over his mouth, then another hand over that one to gag himself before he could. The heavy stench of blood wavered in the air, coming primarily from the ragged holes torn through the man's face and chest. What was left of his jaw hung slack, and his one remaining eye was glazed over and pained, fixed on the ceiling. Saria's forehead was pressed to Mido's waxy one, and her thin shoulders heaved as she wept. One hand was shaking, trying to prop him up, and the other was desperately caressing his wounds with trembling fingers. She was forcing out words in a language that Link didn't understand, but they didn't seem to do anything, no matter how many times she repeated them.

Finally, Saria hiccupped, took a deep breath and started the incantation again, her voice husky and cracking. His skin started to meld together, following Saria's fingers. Link watched in astonishment as she dragged her hand languidly up his torso, neck, and finally rested her palm on his face. Most of the damage repaired itself – fibers of muscle and tattered skin wove back together like fabric; the empty socket refilled with an undamaged, hazel eye; his jaw reset with a soft cracking noise.

But the skin was still deathly pale, his eyes still stared at nothing, and his chest didn't rise and fall as he breathed.

Saria let out a breath, then hugged the now unmarred corpse to herself, sobbing hysterically.

"Mido, what am I going to do now…" Her fingers carded through his hair, which was still soaked in blood, blood that stained her fingertips and nails and palms and it got everywhere and oh gods-

"He took you… and then he took the baby…" she whispered, burying her face in Mido's hair. "I don't know… I don't know what I'm supposed to do without you two…" she sobbed out.

Link finally did scream when he saw Saria's stomach when she let Mido fall on her bent knees. It was bruised and crumpled, that dark red, rich blood streaking the inside of her thighs. Link quickly stepped around the woman and ran towards the attic stairs.

(OH GODS WHY AM I NOT WAKING UP, PLEASE I NEED TO GET OUT OUT OUT)

Link came to a dead stop once he reached the hole in the floor. He stood on his tiptoes, his heart racing frantically in his chest when he saw a silhouette outside, standing in the middle of the garden he had seen Saria planting flowers in the previous dream.

The silhouette was feminine, her hair long and waving in the slight wind outside. She drew up her right hand, and something swung from her closed fist, something that glittered green and gold despite being encrusted with dirt-

And then she held up her other hand, and in that hand, her heart beat and glistened a wet, bright red in the moonlight.

Zelda stood like that, statuesque in the moonlight, for a couple of seconds, then she dissipated into a thousand bloody particles that flew up towards the window, pushed their way through with a tinkle of shattered glass, and then rushed him. Link let out a cry, throwing up his arms to protect his face as he stumbled backwards. His heel caught the lip of the stairs, and he shrieked as he dropped down into the hole. He felt his body tangle in the stairs, bones and spine snapping and blood starting to drop on the floor-

His broken shin slipped from between the rung of the ladder, and his head thumped softly against wood as he was disentangled from the ladder by cool, sticky hands. He was laid on the floor, his head spinning with agony, confusion, and fear. He saw two huge, frightened blue eyes through the slits in his eyelids, then he felt something cool and metallic being pressed into his open, smarting hand. Dirt crumbled in the creases of his hand, but he was powerless to shake his wrist and fling it away. Clammy lips pressed against his softly before pulling away and leaving the bitter taste of blood behind.

"Ahmmuh… suuuh awrhhhhheeeeey… Ennnneh… I… Meeeeeh yuh…" The blue eyes shone with unshed tears, sent sparkling by the moonlight trickling into the hallway.

"Gooooouh…" Cold fingers brushed against his eyes, closing them gently before the lips surged against his one last time.

His eyes flashed open to bright, bright sunlight, and he screamed against the hand that covered his mouth. It was quickly removed, along with the two fingers pinching his nose shut. Midna's panicked babbling registered quickly in his ringing ears.

"Son of Din, Link! You scared me so bad!" Her voice shook as her fingers

(-trailing languidly up his bleeding torso to rest on his ruined face-)

grabbed his hand. The world started to swim again, this time red

(dark and stagnant and dying dying dying all of them DEAD)

and black fighting for control at the edges of his sight.

"Link… LINK!" Midna's shrieking and babbling was the last thing he heard as he dropped into the darkness, which was so much more inviting than the disturbing images that circled around his mind.

* * *

**WOOOH. I had just a MASSIVE brain surge, so I decided not to wait to post this chapter. Finally, some more PLOT. This es muy muy importante. **

**... It's very important.**

**So pretty please, review and let me know what you think about these latest development! Maybe we can get to fifty reviews with THIS chapter. That's eight reviews - I think that's a little more doable. :)**

**Much thanks to LinkKirbyNess, SheDevil333, Faustus Pendragon, LeilaEditer, and LauParisi, the five new reviewers from chapters past!**

**~Eva**


	9. Interlude

**I don't own Zelda. Very short chapter today - think of it as a sort of interlude between two big things.**

* * *

Link awoke with a start to a very worried looking Midna. Her face was stained with tears, and he felt a hand leave his shoulder.

"Oh my gods, I thought you weren't going to wake up…" she whispered hoarsely. "I was just about to call 911." Link twitched his finger experimentally, found that it moved. He pushed himself into a sitting position, groaning as his head flared into a bright, pulsating flash of pain. He looked at Midna, and she stared solemnly back at him, sitting criss-cross applesauce at the foot of his bed.

"What happened? Did you pass out?" she asked, and Link shook his head, licked his dry lips. He needed water. "Link, I'm so sorry if you're still mad at me, but please talk to me-"

"There's nothing to say." His voice sounded hollow, echoing in his ringing ears. His leg ached where it had snapped in his dreams. "Midna, I forgive you, and I'm sorry for being such an ass, but please. I need to be alone right now." There was a long period of silence, then Midna let out a shaky breath.

"Oh," she simply said, unfolding her legs.

"Okay," she simply said, standing up from the bed.

"I'm sorry, Link," she simply said as she walked out the door, closed it with a ringing click. Link sagged forward, his head aching as it touched his knees.

Did that dream actually happen, like the one he had had of the Masters girl? Or was this something that _would_ happen? He ignored the part where Zelda had come and kissed him while he laid dying on the floor – she was dead. That was never going to happen: past, present, future, _never_.

He made another go for his laptop, then thought for a second in quiet puzzlement. Where did Saria say they were from again? It was somewhere to the south, he remembered that much… But was it Faron, Ordon, Deku, Goron City… Gods, his geography was failing him. That last place was nowhere near the south.

Link went with his first choice and googled "faron murders recent", then went to the first news site that popped up. He saw something about a girl's body being dumped in a river. Something about a car accident. Nothing about a pregnant woman and her husband killed in their home. His face screwed up as he tried to remember their last name. He looked at his hand and saw a smeared K and an R. Kiri. That's what it was.

"saria kiri" was the next term to be run through the search engine, and it came up with a couple thousand hits. The woman had written a couple of books on gardening and organic stuff, and Link confirmed that they lived in Faron Province, like he had thought. "mido kiri" brought up a photography website that Link didn't bother looking at. The only thing he cared about was that there was no news of a death, murder or otherwise.

His heart swelled a little, buoyed up by hope. If this meant something, maybe he could help these people like he couldn't help Zelda, save them in some way-

Oh, sweet Farore. What was he _talking_ about? This was a dream, a bad dream to be sure, that had occurred when he had passed out for some reason

(he hadn't been sleeping there was your explanantion now just PULL IT TOGETHER)

but only a dream. It was not _real_. Link slapped his hand against his forehead, dragged it down and distorted his haggard features.

"You're losing it if you think you can tell the future," he told himself and the empty room. "Leave that to that crackpot, Fanadi." He laughed, another hollow, empty sounding noise, then he shut his laptop with a final click and crept out of the room that stank of nightmares to try and smooth things over with Midna.

* * *

**See what I mean? Short, because I felt like I needed to get something out before swim practice started this week. I also think it might be good just because Link's still not totally convinced that what he's seeing is real, and he won't be convinced for a little bit yet. ****Stay tuned for the next chapter, which will be longer with more big stuff. **

**Thanks so much you guys for the plus fifty reviews! That makes me very happy :) ****And if you wish to read more stuff from my deranged mind that is of an alternate nature - on my profile, there is a story entitled Special. It will be a superhero AU eventually, so pop on over and give it a read.**

**~Eva**


	10. Breach

**I don't own Zelda.**

**Translation - Di vos proteget = May the gods protect you (Latin). I used Google Translate for that, so I don't know how accurate it is.**

* * *

Midna was crying when Link walked out of his bedroom. She was curled over her stomach like it ached, and her hands were wound into tight fists, one pressed into her chest and the other pressed against her mouth. He could tell she was trying to stay silent by the way she was shaking uncontrollably. He felt his guilt like a punch to the stomach; it took his breath away and made his torso hurt. He walked over quietly and sat down next to her, slumping down until he was roughly as tall as he felt right about now. She hiccupped.

"I'm suh-sorry," Midna whispered. Link shook his head.

"Don't apologize. I was being a little bitch."

She let out a burbling, sad sounding laugh that turned into a sob halfway through. She wiped at her eyes with the heel of her hand.

"It used to be so easy to talk to you," she mumbled. "Now I feel like I'm just reading the script of a play you don't like."

Link's heart sank a little. Before he could say anything, she was talking again.

"I just… I can't lose two of my best friends so close together." Midna burst into fresh tears, smothering her sobs behind two clasped together hands over her mouth. He reached over and awkwardly patted her shoulder, not really sure what to do. She twisted and threw herself on him, her arms encircling his neck and her face buried in his chest. In contrast to the burning, crackling fever heat that had been pouring off her a couple of days ago, Midna now felt ice cold.

"Hey, hey… it's alright… I'm not going anywhere, I promise," he soothed. He started to rock her back and forth as she continued to cry, and eventually, she trailed off into silence and simply stayed close, her breathing heavy and thick. Midna pulled away and looked at the mess of tears and snot on Link's shirt. She laughed then, and as small as it was, it was genuine.

"Sorry about your shirt. Got it all gross." She sniffed a sniff that was really more of a snort, then stood to go get the box of Kleenex perched on the counter. She brought it back and helped Link try to clean off his shirt.

"And I'm sorry for crying all over you and everything." Midna waved the crumpled up Kleenex in her hand, the white flashing like a flag of surrender. "What I said was stupid." Link grabbed her hand before she reached for his chest again.

"No, it wasn't. I needed to hear it," he said as clear as he could, his voice rough. "I haven't been the nicest person recently."

"Well, you've had a good reason to be grumpy," she said somewhat good-naturedly, then mopped at his chest furiously, the tissue shredding in her hand. "You know what, you might just have to get a new shirt. I'm sorry, that's so gross." She shook her head. "Go, I can't find anything in your room."

He nodded, then walked back to his room. While he was pulling his shirt over his head, he heard the doorbell ring and Midna curse loudly from the next room.

"If you're that reporter again, I'm gonna kill you-" The door opened. "Oh. Who are you?"

A reply too quiet for Link to hear.

He finished putting on his shirt, then walked back out into the living room. He stopped dead in his tracks as he stared at the very pregnant woman in his doorway.

"Hi Link," Saria said, and Midna turned and shot a look back at Link.

"Who is this?" she asked, curious.

"Erm, I kind of got in a car crash with her." Link rubbed the back of his neck once he found words again, flushing red. Saria laughed, the merry sound tinkling like bells. He remembered it from the previous night's dream, where she had been working and singing in her garden. He was still in the process of trying to forget the one he had just had. His gaze still drifted towards her full stomach, which was whole and healthy looking. One hand came up to cradle it protectively as she spoke again.

"That's what I came here to talk to you about, actually. I tried calling you, but it said your number had been disconnected."

Link's face twisted. "Yeah, that's been a problem recently."

"Will you just come out and talk with me on the porch? I promise I won't take long." She smiled brightly, but it didn't reach her eyes, and the lightness in her voice seemed strained.

"Sure," Link said, shrugging a little bit before joining her on the porch. Link and Midna exchanged looks when he passed her, but she broke the staring contest finally and shut the door, leaving the two alone on the front stoop.

Saria rocked back and forth on her heels a little bit before she cleared her throat. "First of all, we don't need you to pay us back for the car repairs. Mido and I are leaving Hyrule, and we've got everything taken care of."

Link's mouth dropped open a little bit. "Why are you leaving?"

Saria bit her lip, rocked for a while longer before finally settling on her feet and looking out on the street. "You knew Zelda Nohansen, didn't you?"

Of all the things he expected her to say, this was not one of them. "… Yes. I knew her."

Saria turned back to him, her blue eyes heavy. "I did too." She brought her purse around and dug through it for a moment, finally pulling out a crumpled piece of paper that she then passed to Link.

It was a photo of Zelda sitting on a bench in between two other women. One was Saria, her belly flat and her hair a violent, bright shade of green from root to tip. The other was a woman with pale skin and voluminous blue-black hair that fell to her shoulders in huge curls. All three of them wore small smiles on their faces, and they sat hip to hip, Zelda's arms around the two other women's shoulders and the dark-haired woman's hand on his friend's knee. He looked back up at Saria.

"Where was this taken? How did you know who I was?"

The first question went ignored. "She talked about you a lot." She smirked knowingly. "She was quite fond of you, you know. I really only made the connection last night…"

"How did you know her though? Why did you come and talk to me?"

The smile melted off her face quickly, and Saria looked around casually before leaning in closer and whispering, "Zelda and I were part of something."

"Like a group?"

"Yes, like a group. I'm sorry I can't be more specific. We were all sworn to secrecy." She looked around one more time, then leaned in even closer and murmured in his ear. "We were in charge of protecting something. Zelda was killed when someone found out she knew where it was." She pulled away, her face soft as she watched his.

Link nodded slowly. "Okay… Why…" He swallowed. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I need to know if you'll help me hide something," she said quietly, looking at the ground.

"What is it?"

"It's one of the keys to get into the place where the thing is. It's small, easily hidden. You look smart; I know you'll be able to find a spot for it."

"Why should I?"

"You're the perfect person. The man who's after this… He's insane, Link, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He's smart, and he got into our network, and now some of our positions have been compromised. I might be one of them, so Mido and I are leaving to keep the baby safe." One of her hands that had come to rest on her stomach curled into an angry claw. "To him, you are nobody. He doesn't even know you exist. He doesn't know that you know anything about us, and it should stay that way…" She looked back into his eyes, studying his reaction. "If you do this, he might never be able to get to what we're protecting. Zelda wouldn't have died for a lost cause."

Saria's last sentence hit him like a punch in the gut, and he sucked in air that had seemed to abandon his lungs. Link nodded.

"I'll do it."

Saria beamed. "You're loyal. You don't see too many people like that these days." She dug around in her purse again and pulled out a box encrusted in dirt. Someone had obviously tried to wipe it off, but tiny clumps of dry earth still clung stubbornly to one of the edges.

"Here. Take this. Hide it. Guard its location as best you can." Link took the box in his hands and peeked inside, seeing a tangled gold chain along with an interior of brownish red velvet. He quickly shut it again and nodded.

"If he somehow finds us, I swear-" she grabbed one of his hands quickly. "I swear that I won't tell him you have it. I'll keep you safe for her." She dropped his hand, then nodded at him. "If this ends up blowing over, we'll find you again. Good luck Link." She hesitated, then spat out a couple of words that sounded like gibberish to his ears. "Di vos proteget."

Saria turned without another word, stepped off the stoop, and left him alone with the little wooden box, the picture of the three women, and more questions than answers.

…

Link dodged Midna's questions when he got inside, saying that Saria simply needed to talk to him about the car situation.

"Well then, what's the box for? What's that, is that a picture?" She craned her neck and looked at him suspiciously. "I don't think you're telling me everything, Link."

A cold sweat broke on the back on his neck. "Midna, I just can't tell you, okay? She said to keep it secret."

"Awww. Fine." Her red and yellow eyes still watched him carefully as he went back to his room. He locked the door behind him and sat on the bed, the box on his lap and the picture beside him on a mound of blanket. He took a deep breath and popped open the wooden top.

A small emerald set in a swirling gold face glinted dangerously at him.

Link recognized it of course – it was the perfect copy of the one around Saria's neck in his dream the night before, and the mirror image of the one Zelda had held in his dream

(or was it a vision)

this morning.

(if it's right here right now then who's to say that all of them aren't real all the dreams are real all the dreams are real-)

(SHUT UP)

His hand was shaking, his fingers trembling when he reached out and picked it off its bed of crushed velvet. The trinket shivered in midair as he inspected it, and a warm, tingling feeling traveled up his fingers to his hand and to his elbow. The emerald started to pulse weakly with a green light, like a tiny glowing heart resided in the center of the gem. Once it reached that point, he realized what was happening, and he promptly dropped the necklace back into the box and closed it. Link set his elbows on his knees, then cradled his head in his hands. He sighed, then murmured,

"Zelda, what were you _doing?_"

* * *

**Ehehehe... Hey guys. Sorry for the delay - le swimming takes up a lot of my energy, and I've been trying to update some of my other stories. But I finally got this chapter out! More plot, yaaaaaaaay. Again, things begin to pick up a little bit more from here.**

**Lemme know what you think of Saria's behavior, or this new and mysterious group, or the other woman in the photo, or Link and Midna's relationship. Just some ideas for reviews...**

**Until next time, lovely readers,**

**~Eva**


	11. Mother Gaea

**Hello my homeboys (or girls, since most of us on this lovely site are of the female persuasion) and welcome to the newest installment of Sleep No More. **

**A warning – there is a pretty graphic scene in here that may contain nightmare fuel for some people. I will not discuss the circumstances until the end, but please know that I did my best to make this scene… erm, accurate. However, the horror and fear part came first. I have not gone through this experience, so please, no nitpicking. As I said, I did my best.**

**Besides that note, the only other pressing issue is that I don't own Zelda.**

…

He narrowed his eyes at the small box, frustrated by his lack of information.

Link wasn't sure exactly what the nature of the stone was or what it was supposed to do, even after looking at it and holding it for about an hour. All it did was continue to pulse weakly; when Link held the actual stone in his hand, he could feel a slight ticking reverberating in time with the flashes of light, a little bit off from his own heartbeat.

Saria had said it was a key, but he saw no way that this would be able to open something. His slight euphoria about getting a straight answer from someone in this time of only questions was starting wear off, and he was slowly starting to see that Saria had really left him with almost nothing to go on. Screw the secrecy oath or whatever; she had asked him to possibly risk his life. A little more information to go on might have been nice so he could justify it to himself. He was just wondering if he had made an awful mistake when Midna knocked on the door.

"Hey, are you decent? Well, if you're not, then get ready, because I'm coming in anyway," she announced cheerfully, sweeping into the room. Link quickly shoved the box under his pillow before she could see it. She plopped down next to him, promptly saw the photograph in Link's hands, plucked it out of his grasp, and danced away with it.

"Hey, give that back!" Link lunged for her, but she backed away, her brow furrowing and the smile melting off her face. It was quickly replaced with confusion.

"Who are these people with Zelda?" she asked, waving the stiff paper in the air. She stepped nimbly over a pile of clothes and ran out of the room when he came close to swiping it from her hands. He stopped dead in his tracks.

Wait… If these people were Zelda's friends, then Midna might know them too and be able to give him more information. It didn't sound like it, but maybe if he jogged her memory…

"You mean you don't know?" he asked back as he followed her. She shook her head, still staring at the photograph.

"Never seen these people before today. The funky green haired chick is the one that came to your door just now, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that's Saria. I don't know who the other is."

Midna shook her head again. "This is really weird. She never talked to me about these people, and we told each other _everything_."

Link sighed. "You're sure?"

"Double sure." She wordlessly handed the photograph back to Link, and he stuffed in his pocket.

They spoke no more on it for the rest of that day, which passed by uneventfully. Sheik brought home takeout. They watched a romantic comedy because Midna insisted, and then turned it off halfway through because all three of them were laughing too hard at it to take it seriously. They then tried to watch a bad horror movie, but Sheik got bored and ended up playing games on his phone, Midna fell asleep leaning on his shoulder, and Link got up and went to bed around midnight, citing the fact that he had work the next day early.

Surprisingly, he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, the hard shape of the necklace box digging reassuringly into the back of his neck.

His last thought before he passed out was not whether or not he would have a dream tonight; rather, it was of Zelda, sitting on a bench with two people he didn't know, smiling solemnly at the person behind the camera.

_Click._

…

The house was sunny and open. The walls were white and clean, and the kitchen was messy, littered with pots and pans and letters and bills and foods.

Despite the ordinary scene, something still felt horribly wrong.

Link watched; a pair of eyes without a body and a pair of ears to bear witness as Saria walked through the front door without a second thought and into the kitchen. Her purse was thrown on a counter, her keys clinking in the depths of the bag, and she kicked off her shoes. The green and white patterned dress she wore billowed around her knees as she walked through the kitchen, calling out her husband's name.

There was no response.

Link felt a sick feeling grow in his stomach as her expression turned into one of concern.

She felt it too.

"Mido!" Her voice was on the edge of a bark, fear starting to creep its way in. "Mido? Are you done packing yet?!"

Link followed unwillingly as she ventured into the living room, her bare feet soft against the wood.

"Mido…" she now whispered quietly. Saria blinked and shuddered, crossing her arms and rubbing her shoulders with slim hands. Her blue eyes darted around the room, searching for something.

They finally alighted on a door in the corner.

Saria took an uneven step forward, and then another. Finally, she burst into a half run, stumbling over to the door and yanking it open. Link could see a deep, bright red seeping out the crack at the bottom, staining the hardwood.

Saria let out a dry shriek and staggered backwards as a body that was once propped up in the closet slumped over and hit the floor with a solid thump. Link could almost hear her heart, pounding and hammering in her chest like a jackrabbit's, from his view right next to her shoulder. He saw what she saw, and what she saw was a head of ginger orange hair stained red, his shirt stained _red_, his skin and his hands stained _red __**red **__**RED**_-

Another screech was about to escape her mouth when a shadow that neither of them saw coming came up from behind and slammed something into the back of her head.

Saria fell in what seemed like slow motion, her head snapping forward, and then falling back as she collapsed first to her knees, like she was praying; then onto her side; onto her husband's corpse. A dark hand reached down, picked up her limp hand, and checked her pulse.

Link could hear it then too – thready and panicked, but slowing down. The shadow held her hand in his for a short time, until the beats steadied and settled into a rhythm that wasn't life-threatening. He let out a breath of relief, then bent down to pick her up.

This was the first time Link saw the man – the man that had killed Zelda. He was blurred, indistinct, and his movements were jerky and sharp, as if caught on a camera with a bad frame rate. What he could catch was that the man was bulky, tall; his features were strong, a hooked, aquiline nose dominating his features; his skin was dark, and his hair did not match it. When he moved, carrying the pregnant woman with her swelled belly easily back out the way he came, it crackled and left a trail like flames.

Link's fixed view did not follow it – his sight stayed by the dead body, now lying with its legs tangled in the closet and a hole in its chest.

The vision stuttered and halted for a second, then exploded into heavy darkness. The smell of freshly cut wood, new carpet, and the faint stench of bleach filled his not-nose, and he would have started if he could when a loud scream sounded in his ear like a siren, nearly deafening him.

"LET ME OUT!" There was a loud thump of someone hitting something with their closed fist. The desperate cry was absorbed by the carpet, and it turned into a sob that bled into the air with a blue color. "Please… Oh my gods, please… My baby… I need a hosp-" She cut herself off with a loud, pained gasp that rippled the atmosphere inside the space, and when Saria sucked in more air, Link was drawn down, down, down from his perch above her.

He tried to cry out and grab something, but he found no helping handholds as he fell in silence, and soon he was surrounded by Saria's thoughts and emotions, all swirling around him in an agonized, turbulent storm.

(OH GODS, PLEASE END THIS, IT HURTS)

(!)

(he'll kill me and my baby just like he killed mido mido mido oh no no NO)

(I'M BEING BURIED ALIVE!)

(please, please, please, I need a hospital!)

(sick, baby needs care, sick, baby needs care-)

(he was redredredredred)

(HELP GODS PLEASE I WORK TO KEEP EVERYTHING GOOD AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME-)

Link continued to float in this otherworldly ether of distilled emotions, feeling like he was going to be overwhelmed and swallowed up by all this horror. It terrified him. He looked for something, anything to hold onto in the formless cloud of her sorrow, panic, and fear.

Something latched onto him then, spearing into him like a sword through the heart as Saria let out a small cry, her fingernails digging into the sides of the box. Waves of pain and claustrophobia rebounded throughout her mind and rolled through her body, and the spike through Link's chest tightened and expanded, leaving him choking.

"PLEASE!" she screamed in a raw voice. "My baby is coming! I need a hospital!"

There was no verbal answer, but Link could feel the man standing outside the small box, studying it carefully.

Saria let out another caustic shriek as something dug into her mind, searching and defiling her thoughts.

_If you tell me where the emerald is, then I will release you… Drive you to a hospital… Doesn't that sound nice?_

Saria panted, and with the strongest effort Link had ever seen someone give anything, she threw him out of her mind and pulled up barriers that he could feel encasing her thoughts, protecting them. She settled back down, moaning in pain as another contraction tore its way through her.

And so Link floated in her barricaded mind, wishing he could scream along with her when the waves of pain ripping through her slight frame turned even more acidic and agonizing. She stopped banging on the sides of the coffin like box, focusing on muffling her cries of pain with the palms of her hands. The tang of sweat and blood filled the box, along with the foul odor of excrement as she struggled to push.

The man came back occasionally – Link could hear him waiting outside the box. There was the occasional prod at Saria's mind, but it was quickly withdrawn when confronted with the maelstrom that Link was trapped in.

He thought he was going to go mad.

Eventually, hours later, with one final heave, a lurch, and an agonized moan, there was a quiet, heavy sound on the carpet of the box. There was a soft anticipation in the air, and Saria would have moved to see if her child was alright, but she was too exhausted; the box was too small, fit her too closely.

So she waited silently, her breath expelling between her teeth like frantic devotions. Her anticipation infected Link, and he soon found himself praying that everything would be alright.

(please let this be just a dream)

When the frantic, piercing squalls of a newborn didn't fill the air, a broken and bleeding mother sobbed her heart out instead.

...

It was dark outside when Saria landed on the ground with a hollow thud. The grass matched her dress where it wasn't stained. Her eyes were blank and empty, but Link could still hear her breathing, rasping in and out fervently.

(please)

There was a whistle, and then a low groan. Saria curled on herself, her hands clutching and clawing at her empty stomach. The booted foot smashed into her arms, and she cried out weakly as they snapped, started to swell. They stayed on top of her, cradled by each other.

_I can bring them back… If you'll only tell me where it is…_

Saria shook her head, her eyes staring up at the starless, dark sky. It stretched out for an eternity…

"No. You're a liar." Her head rotated to look away from the man, straight into Link's eyes. "Monsters can only take life away…"

The man grunted, and with one last kick to her side, he left her to die, alone in the grass with no stars above her head.

…

[WAKE UP! WAKE UP!]

Link started upright, drenched in sweat. Everything continued to swim around him, but he shook it off and turned towards the hulking silhouette in the middle of his bedroom. It was the wolf, its blue eyes wide and frightened as it cowered in the middle of the mess, but this time, it was different.

Someone was riding the wolf, sitting astride it like a great horse. Link didn't have time to see who it was before the wolf bounded past him and through the wall, barking out, [FOLLOW! FOLLOW!]

He did as he was told, throwing himself out of the window and feeling the ground meet the palms of his hands and knees with a numbing, smarting pain. He scrambled to his feet and stumbled after the wolf, padding in front of him. It looked behind itself to make sure Link was following, but it was only when the figure astride its back gave it a small nudge with its heels that it howled and broke into a loping sprint. Link gasped, then raced to stay with the beast. It stopped occasionally to allow him to follow easily, but not once did it allow him rest, and not once did the figure on top of it speak to him or even spare him a backwards glance.

He mindlessly followed, even though he had no herd or pack to stay with, and once he began to come back to himself, he found himself in a familiar part of town: Zelda's neighborhood.

In fact, there was her house.

(scratch scratch scratch)

He stopped dead in his tracks, leaning over and clutching the stitch in his side.

(scratch scratch scratch)

He looked at her house again, dumbfounded as the raspy noise continued to creep out of the door, hanging open. Broken yellow tape fluttered against the siding of the house, hissing as plastic slid against plastic.

(scratch scratch SCRATCH)

[FOLLOW?] the wolf barked out hesitantly. Link looked up to see the beast standing only feet away, its rider staring at him with huge, indigo blue eyes. Her windblown hair glistened with red in the moonlight, as did her pale, bare shoulders. She patted the wolf's head, murmuring something in a soothing voice. She turned her face back to Link.

"Ennnnnnnhhhuh…" Zelda whispered sadly. She slid off the side of the wolf and walked towards him. Her feet were bare, and a white, flowing dress, as pale and shimmery as the moon, covered her down to her ankles.

(SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH)

"Immmme uh waaakuh uhhp…" she mumbled. She was hazy, her outline shuddering as she got closer. It was like she was shattering at the edges, disappearing. The wolf began to fade as well.

Link was frozen to the spot as she clasped a pale hand around his neck, pulled his head down, and planted her lips on his.

She was freezing cold, the absence of warmth as painful as the absence of life. And then she was gone.

Link started backwards, his eyes snapping open as the sleep-like haze faded abruptly from his mind. He collapsed onto the grass beside the sidewalk, heaving in huge gulps of air. As the vision faded, he looked around in astonishment.

He wasn't in his bed. He was right outside Zelda's house, with no shoes on his dirty, bleeding feet, in his pajamas. Alone.

He pushed himself to his feet, rubbing his eyes frantically. He looked around again, astonishment slowly icing over him. Zelda's house was nearly eight miles from his. Had he slept walk that far?

There was no way…

Link shook his head, trying to clear the exhaustion from his thoughts. He started when a siren exploded to life behind him, a police car turning the corner and speeding past.

[FOLLOW…]

And so he did, even though his feet smarted and his side ached. He still followed, as siren after siren sounded their call in the middle of the night, waking people from their slumber. Soon, a couple of people, also in their nightclothes, were venturing out next to him, shooting the road curious looks as an ambulance wailed its way into existence to accompany the police cars.

The small, shambling procession soon came to the vacant field where the police had stopped and set up camp, rolling out their yellow tape and shouting out gibberish that made no sense to Link at the moment.

All he saw, all he could concentrate on, was a flash of bloodied green and white skirt in between the dark of uniforms, pooling around two pale, red streaked legs.

He melted backwards, his stomach turning as he remembered the horrid end the green-haired woman had met. Link hovered around the back of the crowd of observers like a shadow, his face pale and his eyes empty. He started and let out a small hiss when a hand clapped on his shoulder. Link looked over to see two confident golden eyes and a meticulously curled mane of copper hair.

"Fancy seeing you here, Mr. Greene…" Aveil Spears muttered, her smooth voice slithering under the noise of the crowd. Link shrugged her hand off and scowled, crossing his arms to ward off the chill that the police woman had seemed to bring with her.

"What do you want?"

She leveled her intense gaze at him, her yellow eyes gleaming red and blue in the lights of the squad cars and ambulance. "I want to know what's going on, Mr. Greene, and I want to know why you're here when I know you live miles away."

He swallowed and opened his mouth. "I couldn't sleep, so I went on a walk."

She nodded slowly, looking him up and down; he could feel her satisfaction when she saw his pajamas and bloodied feet. "Alright, Mr. Greene, whatever you say." She turned a little bit away from him and lifted her chin to see over the crowd better. "Oh dear. You might want to move out of the way." She grabbed his arm tightly and wrenched him out of the way as paramedics came through, pulling a stretcher with them. The lump in the plastic body bag was small, but Link thankfully couldn't see inside it.

"You know, the woman they found dead here was eight months pregnant. She gave birth before she was left here to die – we can't find the baby though. Shame," she murmured. Link turned to her, his mouth slightly open.

"Why?" he asked blankly, not really knowing what he wanted her to say back.

She shrugged. "How do you expect me to know why? Who can fathom the reasoning of a monster?" Aveil bared her teeth at him in an unfriendly smile, her eyes narrowed into an ugly sneer that didn't become her. "I'll be seeing you soon, Mr. Greene…"

She sauntered away and ducked into a dark car with blacked out windows

(the better to watch you with, my dear)

and drove away.

Link watched her go with a sick, heavy pit in his stomach. The ambulance soon followed, the sirens now silent, because its passenger could not be saved with all the speed in the world.

...

**If anyone has maieusiophobia/parturiphobia/lockiophobia (that's fear of giving birth. It's got three names. Ain't that cool?), then I apologize for that chapter. Also, for those of you who were not aware, women in labor will tend to shit themselves while they're pushing. Sorry for that nasty little detail. **

**But yeah…besides that. I killed off a pregnant lady. Please don't judge... Only review, and tell me what a horrible person I am.**

**Until next time,**

**~Eva**


	12. Voyeur

**Someone asked if I could put a "previously" section beforehand, and I am happy to do so… *takes a deep breath***

**Previously, Link was unable to decipher anything further about the necklace or Saria's connection to Zelda. When he falls asleep that night, he sees that Mido was murdered, and that Saria gave birth to a stillborn baby before passing away as well. He sleepwalks and follows an apparition outside, which turns out to be Zelda, and she wakes him up when they're outside her house. He finds the crime scene, a large field only minutes away from Zelda's previous residence. The police bitch Aveil dropped hints that she thinks Link is acting rather suspicious while talking to him, and now, shit's gotta go down.**

**And that's what you missed on GLEE- I mean, Sleep No More.**

**Warning, mild sexual situation ahead. It's no lemon, and nothing is even detailed – but still. Warning all the same.**

**I don't own Zelda.**

* * *

After his encounter with Aveil, Link started the slow trek home. He didn't have his phone, and even if he did, he did not want to wake up Sheik. He had made that mistake before, and he was not about to make it again. Besides, the walk, being alone and outside, might do him good. It might make him tired enough to go back to sleep.

(do you really want to go back to sleep?)

Link shuddered, stopping dead in his tracks before moving on again. He watched the sidewalk slide past under his bare feet mutely, his head bowed as crickets chirped and the occasional owl hooted in the trees around him. He tried to organize his thoughts, but he found himself unable to, because where on earth could he start? His mind swirled agitatedly, a tornado of confusion and distress from what he had seen. Link pounced on the first thing he thought of, and that was the apparition that had led him out of his room and almost all the way to where Saria's body had been dumped.

Zelda.

If parts of the dream were real, did that mean that everything in them was truth? Was that… her ghost?

He only saw her in his dreams. It wasn't like she appeared and walked through walls and shouted BOO in his face. No, what she did was far more invasive. She slipped into his sleeping mind and plopped herself right in a dream, trying to speak, trying to pass something on, but failing. Time after time.

He had no proof that that was her. The vision could just be that – a vision. Things in visions didn't always have to be the things they were, right? Some things had to be symbols. Maybe Zelda was just popping up because she was important in all of this.

Somewhat pleased that he had found an explanation for that part of his dream

(because it eliminated the idea that Zelda was somehow wandering around the world of the living, unable to talk and be seen by anyone for all eternity, and wouldn't that be awful, a crying shame shame shame-)

Link moved onto the next parts of his dreams, the ones confirmed by reality itself.

He had had a vision, or waking dream or something of the like, the morning of someone's death, and then he had seen what fate had befallen them in excruciating detail.

Why? Did the gods just have a fucked up sense of humor? Or a particularly wide sadistic streak?

Was it because he was supposed to save them? Had he been given a nudge towards the right thing, but hadn't recognized it for what it was?

… Could he have saved them? All three of them? He knew that he had been given a chance with Zelda (and had promptly blown it), but this was more unclear. How was he supposed to have known that the Kiris would have been attacked _that_ night?

He felt cheated somehow; like the universe's laws about something had been broken. Why had he seen what had happened to Saria _after_ the fact? What was the point?

Link's hands curled into fists, and when he saw a park, he detoured, walking along the well-kept trail. Daffodils and daisies

(waved hello in the dim)

were planted meticulously in little plots by the path, and the grass, still green even in the sweltering heat, was short, cut recently. He continued to walk in the silence of the sleeping park until he came across a small pond.

The surface was almost still, a near perfect mirror reflecting the moon back at itself. The tiniest of ripples broke the surface of the water, and Link quickly realized that they were insects. Link just stood and stared at the small body of water. He soon shook his head, ripped himself out of his daze, then started to circle around the pond, walking aimlessly.

Link saw a bench and went to go sit on it for a second. He inspected his bleeding feet once he was sitting down, and his face turned. When he got home, some early morning first aid was in order.

What time was it anyway? He was guessing around three. He might have to stop at a payphone to make sure that he made it to work on time. Link groaned and sank on the bench, covering his face with his hands. The pond disappeared from sight, leaving him with his own thoughts to occupy his mind. He kneaded his palms into his eyes until otherworldly colors bled together under his closed lids. When he dropped his hands, the world seemed to be painted with silver and grey, muted somehow. It seemed fitting.

"Link, what are you doing out so late, you naughty boy?"

He started up, his eyes wide as he looked at the silhouette stooped over at the other end of the bench. Small, dark brown eyes twinkled merrily at him, and tendrils of snow white hair, escaping from a haphazard bun, fell around her wrinkled face.

"Grandma Pearl?" Link croaked out. He rubbed his eyes again, then looked again. The elderly woman still stood staunchly a couple feet away from him, her hands folded in front of her. She had on the same thick sweater and jeans that she had been wearing before she had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance that screamed and wailed through the snow just like he had wanted to-

"Link, everything's going to be okay. I promise..." she said softly, her face crinkled into a kind smile.

"How can you be so sure?" he whispered. Grandma's head titled to the side, and she gave him a confident look.

"When have I ever told you a lie?"

(I'll be alright Link just call 911 it'll all be okay I promise I swear)

He pushed it out of his mind as she spoke again.

"Just have faith, dear."

Link looked back at the pond, and when he looked back at the other end of the bench, Pearl was gone, and he was alone.

Without waiting another second, Link got to his feet and walked quickly out of the park, casting glances behind him every couple of seconds to make sure that no other ghosts were following him.

…

He made it home after about two hours of walking. He had absolutely no idea how he had run after Zelda that long, because at this point, his legs were shuddering under him, knees knocking, and his feet were leaving the faintest of bloody smears behind him. Link licked his dry lips when he came to the door of the house, and he quickly dug around in a sad looking houseplant to find the spare key. He unlocked the door, pushed it open, and then stood there dumbly, uncomprehending of what he was seeing.

Two people were twisted on the couch, their limbs tangled and sweaty. Link saw a couple piles of clothes littering the ground. Naked skin shone in the near dark along with a head of short blonde hair. The air shuddered as a high-pitched moan, and then a giggle pierced it.

"Oh… That feels nice…" a feminine voice drawled. Link recognized it as Midna's, and his face blushed red. He quickly raced across the room, shielding his eyes until he reached the open and well-lit bathroom. He slammed the door shut, hoping that that would make them stop for the time being.

"Son of Din," he muttered, drawing a hand across his face. He shot a look at himself in the bathroom mirror, then turned away. The flushed, sweaty, tired face that greeted him was one he did not want to see right now. He flopped down on the closed toilet seat, sighing. His feet looked much worse in the light than they did back at the pond, and Link leaned over to fetch the box of band-aids sitting on the far side of the counter.

He jumped when there was a knock on the door.

"Link… is that you…" Midna asked carefully. He didn't answer, but his face did turn a deeper shade of red.

"I'm coming in, so if you're taking a shit, apologies in advance." The door opened, and Midna poked her head in.

"What the hell are you doing out of bed? It's five o'clock in the morning. And how did you get from your room to the front door?"

"The window," he answered shortly, searching for Neosporin in the cupboard and not meeting Midna's gaze.

"Fuck," she breathed. "What happened to your feet?"

"Went on a walk," he said.

"Without shoes?"

"Uh-huh."

Midna hesitated before talking again. "Uh… how much of that did you see out there?"

He finally flipped his head up a little bit to look at her. "Enough," he murmured, his face heating up.

"… Sorry. We thought you were sleeping."

"I sit on that couch," Link whispered under his breath.

"… If it helps, Sheik didn't get past third base-"

"Okay, I'm just gonna stop you right there. Go back out there and keep doing… Whatever it is you're doing." Link shook his head. "Just please… Be quiet."

"Whatever you say…" Midna sang, giggling brightly as she shut the door. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome, I guess," Link muttered, even though he knew she couldn't hear him.

After his feet were clean and bandaged, Link limped back out, clapping his hands over his ears when he heard a shaking groan coming from the living room. He quietly closed the door behind him, and then sat on his bed cross-legged, alone, watching the sun come up over the horizon until his alarm clock rang at six. He turned and stared at it, then his eyes alighted on a corner of Saria's box peeking out from under his pillow.

"I almost forgot about you," he murmured, reaching out and pulling the box out from its soft hiding place. When he opened it, he almost let out a scream. He choked it back until it came out as a strangled whimper.

For a couple of horrifying seconds, to Link at least, the emerald had been drenched in blood. And not just any blood, _no_, because nothing around him recently was ever that nice and clean. This was fresh blood, red and rich and dark, so dark that it almost obscured the green of the gem. Clumps of something – Link couldn't tell what it was, everything was just so red – also clung to the blood-soaked velvet inside.

He squeezed his eyes shut, and then opened them slowly, peeked down at the necklace in his lap. It was sparkling clean, the green stone glinting at him maliciously.

(gotcha there for a moment, didn't I?)

The box was closed with a snap, and Link resolved to get rid of it as soon as he possibly could. His heart still pounding weakly in his ears, Link got up and dressed quickly so he could catch some of the morning news before he had to be at work.

* * *

**And so, that's the latest chapter. I wrote this instead of studying for finals. YOU'RE WELCOME.**

**Not like I was gonna study til the night before anyway HA.**

**Anyway, please review. Another chapter should be out within a week.**

**Oh, and I sorta stopped doing this, so I'll see if I can start again. Thanks to all of my new reviewers from the past couple of chapters, because reviews make my day all shiny and happy so I can write more things that are soul-crushing and not shiny. New reviewers include Keagen, kyle. collins .127, Scarmiglione, Generala, and last but definitely not least, Running Ninja. And thanks to everyone who consistently review! You guys are so nice!**

**Also, almost forgot - we have a new cover. I drews it meself :P No more stock photo of a candle YAAAY.**

**~Eva**


	13. The Happiest Day of Your Life

**Previously on Sleep No More, Link saw an apparition of his dead grandmother while walking home from where Saria's body was dumped. She tells him to have faith, and then she vanishes. He also walked in on his best friend and his roommate close to canoodling, and he was unable to sleep after seeing Saria's emerald covered in blood, leaving him with about an hour of sleep and some bloody feet.**

**Well, I was gonna wait to post a new chapter, BUT I finished this in record time and decided to post. Muchas gracias to zelda3469, who gave me this lovely little plot bunny. Go check out her stuff, because I Know What You are but What am I and Weaving Fate are really good.**

**I don't own Zelda.**

* * *

Link sat without thinking in a room the color of butter, sunlight streaming in through the wide windows. He found himself unable to string together words to form a thought, but he did feel a deep pit of excitement nestled in his stomach like a hot coal. It burned steadily, never wavering or leaving. It stayed with him even after the laughter of other people, dressed in black tuxedos and shimmery dresses, left him alone.

He decided not to follow them, at least for the time being. He needed a little time alone before he had to get up in front of everyone. He soon realized that was not his fear or why he was excited.

In reality, he only cared about one person there. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips, then turned into a full-blown grin that made his face tighten and his eyes crinkle.

The smile dimmed when the door opened again, and a woman swept inside. She looked like she had been poured into the dress she was wearing, her breasts spilling out the top. She adjusted it as she walked over, hiking it up with her free hand so it wouldn't slip. Her hair was pinned in some elaborate up-do, a spray of dark curls bouncing out the top.

"Hello, darling!" The dark-haired woman's voice came burbling out of her throat like a bird call as she came up and hugged him with one arm. The other hand held twin white gift bags, and she shifted them away from him when he tried to peek inside.

"Oh you naughty boy, you can't look in one of those yet – all those wives' tales about you not seeing anything of the bride until she walks down the aisle and all that." Her dress, satin and gold, rustled around her as she pulled away and straightened it again. She looked him up and down with wide, violet eyes. "You clean up nice. If I wasn't one of the bridesmaids, I'd snap you up myself," she laughed. "But I don't think Zel would be too happy to know that I stole her man right out from under her nose, so. Here. Take your present."

She held out one bag, grinning madly as he took it and pulled out the tissue paper. When the gift was finally uncovered and in his hands, he saw a rough-hewn wooden box, about the size of his two hands put together. Nayru's symbol was carved into the top, and Link gave the dark-haired woman a curious look. Her violet eyes gleamed, and a laugh trilled out of her as she reached over and tapped the top of the box with a manicured nail.

"Open it – sometimes what's important is buried deeper than you first realize."

He did as she said and opened it. The hinges creaked softly, and then a soft, sad - but still beautiful - song came twinkling out of the music box. A worn statuette of one of the fabled Zora stood on her toes in towards the back of the box, and she twirled in time with the music, the fins on her head and forearms forever frozen in the wild ecstasy of a spin. As Link shut the box again, she sank into the depths of the box, stopped dancing, and went silent.

"That's been passed through my family for generations – but I think it belongs with you two right now." The dark-haired woman gave him a kind smile as she touched his hand. "Best of luck to you, Link. See you inside…"

The dark-haired woman then stepped away, and for a moment, she was drenched from head to toe, her dress sagging and heavy, her hair limp and tangled with something green and stringy, her eyes dead, black makeup smeared around them as they stared at Link with unseeing, guileless blue irises-

But then she was back to normal, waving good bye to Link as she sashayed out of the room, pulling at the top of her dress and cursing. Strains of her laughter drifted off to the ceiling of the low room, and they stayed there, echoing for a time before finally fading out of existence. Link rubbed his eyes, setting the music box down on a nearby coffee table, then turned back to look out the window.

He saw Saria and Mido swaying into the temple, laughing and chatting. Her arm was hooked through his, and her belly was bloated and healthy looking.

One blink, and there was a trail of blood following them like a carpet of roses on the stone walkway. They seemed no worse for wear, but Saria then looked straight at him from his perch in the temple windows.

For a moment, her face was sweaty and streaked with blood, tears; exhausted and empty.

And then her head was thrown back as she laughed at something Mido had whispered in her pointed ear, and she was fine, they were fine, everything was fine, and oh looky there, the blood was gone, everything was fine-

Link let out a nervous laugh as he settled back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

A few minutes later, the door opened a crack, and Saria poked her head in.

"Can I come in?" She didn't wait for him to answer before stepping inside the small room. A green frock clung to her swelled figure, and she radiated happiness. Mido stepped in behind her, and then stayed by the door, his arms crossed. His face was neutral as Saria approached him, her hands behind her back.

"Are you excited?" she asked with a small grin. "I know I felt like I was gonna throw up when I got hitched."

Link shrugged, then laughed with along with her when she burst into a fresh peal of giggles. Her hands came out from behind her back, and she was holding a long box, made of gleaming red wood. She presented it to him.

"I don't know where to find Zelda, and she probably doesn't want to see little old me right now anyway. I figured you could watch this for me and give it to her at the right time." She smiled at him, and for a moment, it was a tired, forced smile under a set of empty blue eyes-

"Can you do that for me?" The smile had made the snap back to genuine in a split second.

Link nodded and took the box from her, setting it next to the dark-haired woman's present.

"Let me know if she likes it or not," she asked shyly. "I found it special, just for her." She backed away, and Link saw red drops of blood on the carpet before it vanished and Saria departed with a soft wave.

After counting cracks in the ceiling to reign in his sudden bout of nerves, he got to his feet and walked out of the room. Several people talked to him, muttered congratulations. There was Zelda's father, a large man with a craggy, yet still regal face, going back to where the bride was being dressed and made up like a doll. There was Sheik, one of the groomsmen, smirking at him as he led Midna, resplendent in gold, somewhere no one would find them. There was a Gerudo that looked strikingly similar to Aveil in a muted pink dress. She was dripping with gold jewelry, and she waggled her fingers at Link teasingly as he passed, like they shared some joke no one else knew about. Aveil shortly came up behind her, shot Link a mocking smile, then dragged her look-alike through the temple doors. There was a tall, balding man and when Link saw him out the corner of his eyes, he thought his head was wreathed in flames, but when he took a second glance, it was only a lantern, silly him, everything was fine, just fine-

"Hello Link," a pleasant voice boomed. Link looked up into an older, weathered face of a dark-skinned man. White teeth gleamed at him in a large grin, and his eyes were the deepest of blues, set off by the wisps of white hair sprouting from the sides of his head and his chin. It was the bald man from before, now extinguished. "I was hoping I would run into you. I have something for you." As the man fished around in his pocket, he gave Link an apologetic look. "Sorry I didn't wrap it, but I think you'll like it." A heavy hand came out of the pocket, and metal gleamed in the smoky firelight. He opened his hand all the way, and there was a circlet of bronze hanging on his fingers, a large red stone in the middle of its broken setting. Link's face dropped in awe, and his voice cracked when he spoke for what seemed like the first time in days.

"I can't accept this…" he said uneasily, still looking at the ruby glowing crimson in the older man's palm. The man sighed, then pulled up Link's arm, pushed it over his hand and up under his jacket sleeve until the band came to rest on his bicep. It felt warm against the white shirt he was wearing, and it felt like it shrank to fit his arm.

"That's supposed to be passed onto the firstborn in my family, but my son passed on a couple of years ago, and I ain't gonna get married again… I figured you were the next best thing." The open face cracked into a sad smile, and the old man pulled Link into a rib-crushing hug.

"Strength, my boy!" he muttered, and then he pulled away and went inside the chapel, his eyes shining. Link watched him go in astonishment, rubbing where he felt the circlet burning into his arm like a blessing.

(or a curse)

And here was Grandma Pearl, hale and hearty, hugging him to assorted aww's and how sweet's from the crowd of people surrounding them.

When she looked up at him, her jaw went slack for a split second, and her face withered into something that resembled a dried fruit. Her bones jutted out under the thin rind of her skin, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Her mouth creaked open and shut, but no words came out-

"Oh honey, I'm just so excited for you. Your lady is so sweet and pretty, and you look so handsome today…" She beamed at him, her face back to normal, then brushed a gnarled hand through his bird's nest of blonde hair that Midna couldn't tame even with a comb and a bottle of hairspray. He smiled weakly at her, and she squeaked out, "Well, I better go get to my seat. Ceremony's starting soon!" She tottered away unsteadily, her purse clutched in front of her and strands of her ivory hair falling out of her bun, like always. Same old Grandma Pearl.

The guests followed the elderly woman's lead soon enough, trickling out of the atrium and into the main temple space, the small group muttering and talking amongst themselves. He thought he saw a flash of platinum hair, and then Fi Masters was in front of him, pressing a tiny book into his hands.

"Some wisdom for your special day," she drawled, winking and smiling brightly at him before floating off in high heels on the tail-end of the crowd, sheathed in purple and deep blue. He blinked after her, watching her shamble away and trip on broken knees and fractured legs

(but only for a split second)

then looked down at the small book held tightly in his hands. He flipped it over and ran his fingers over the small, embossed glyphs adorning the slim novel's face - _Nayru's Love: A Collection of Prayers and Devotions to the Middle Goddess._

He slid it into his breast pocket without a second thought, because here came the small bridal party, complete with the cousin from the Waker Isles who had been staying in Lanayru for the past month helping with the wedding. She kissed him swiftly on the cheek, then laughed at him with ink-dark eyes as he blushed furiously.

"Hey, I've got something for you. Think of it as a little wedding present." She walked over to a nearby plant, and out of nowhere, here came a small, thick, purple bound book, the pages ruffled from having been turned over and re-read multiple times.

"Zelda likes to keep journals, and she said she wanted you to have this. She also said it was for your eyes only." She leveled her gaze at him. "Take it?"

He nodded and swallowed as it passed into his hands. The flames in the eternal torches that burnt in their brackets on the wall flickered wildly for a breath, then went back to being still.

"Take good care of my cousin, yeah?" she simpered, winking at him slyly and wiggling her eyebrows before taking her place in the back of the line, clutching a bouquet of red and white flowers with tanned, shapely hands. Link took a deep breath, quickly searching for a hiding place for the small book. He saw a small basket of dusty hymnals sitting by a pew, and he buried the book deep in the basket, away from prying eyes. He then walked back behind the cousin from the Waker Isles for the procession inside.

When he walked, it felt like he wasn't moving – the world stopped and started around him, shifting into a new place every time he took a measured breath. Soon enough, he was standing at the opposite end of the aisle with his back to the priest, watching as Zelda floated in after waiting for him to reach the end of his walk. She held onto her father's arm, her dark hair pulled up out of her face and twisted on top of her head. Her cheeks and lips were rosy, and her eyes were dark. They locked onto Link's as she made her way down the aisle, and she offered him a slight, solemn smile that didn't show her teeth.

_Something's wrong…_ Link thought, and the insidious, creeping realization creased his forehead. With small steps, Zelda finally reached the end of the aisle, and there she stopped with her father. She dropped her arms and released him from her grasp, then gave him a curtsey and turned to Link. He held out a hand, and with her head held high, she took it.

Her hand was soft and freezing cold against his.

She stared steadily at him as the priest recited the vows and stories from the copy of the Book of Mudora he held. Zelda's eyes slowly moved over to the copy of the book, and Link followed her actions. He was surprised to see that the tome the priest was holding was not new, as was the norm. It was normally given to the newlywed couple for a lifetime of use. This one looked like it had seen several lifetimes, as well as several deaths. Some of the stains covering the cracked leather binding looked just a little too dark, a little too red.

As Link and Zelda watched, the stains grew wet and fresh, so fresh that they started to drip onto the ground and onto the priest's hands. Zelda shifted a little when a drop of blood landed on the ground, shattered into a minute spray of red that barely stained the skirt of her dress. When Link looked back at her, her face looked like it was wound into the same expression on his. Her eyes were wide and frightened, the huge blue irises pulling away from all of her other features. Her mouth opened, to whisper something perhaps, but suddenly, the priest's voice thundered out louder, ominously overpowering as his hands shifted.

_And they shall be together now and forevermore… _

Link looked up at the priest's face, and he saw the same staticky, indistinct features he had seen in the dream where Saria had been killed. His mouth shuddered open in shock, and he let out a dry scream as the killer's hand flew out and caught Zelda in the chest.

The knife in his hand speared into Zelda, punching and crunching through bone and muscle and satin like they were of the same strength and when the silver blur was ripped out of her breast, leaving behind a ragged, fatal hole, the ivory bodice of the dress started to stain a red that didn't discriminate-

Her face twisted in agony, the bride stumbled backwards, then fell to her knees, cupping and trying to stem the tide of crimson that flowed from her heart with her hands but still it leaked through the dam of her fruitless fingers, and when her head tipped up to look at him, her eyes were dimming-

Link staggered towards her, another cry spilling past his lips, but he felt his head being wrenched back by his hair, stopping him in his tracks before something sliced across his exposed throat with brutal speed-

He felt his skin split, ripped asunder by the already tainted blade, and when his head was released, he collapsed to the ground, his knees suddenly too weak to support him, coughing and choking on the iron taste of blood all while the smell suffocated him too-

The sound of absolute silence thundered in his ears as he watched Zelda slump over, her head cracking into the steps that led up to an altar, the light leaving her eyes and her blood-soaked hands falling into her lap and watching that happen was almost more painful than dying-

Link's eyes rolled back in his head as he lost his connection with reality.

…

Link walked into the wasted temple, drinking in the carnage. The pews were devoid of life. A couple of bodies were slumped over the tops of the benches, some were scattered on the floor, and others were simply missing, unaccounted for. Ash blew across the cold floor and coiled around his feet. He stepped free, then started to move down the aisle, recognizing corpses left and right.

There was the woman with the music box, faced own on the floor. Her hands reached feebly out for something he couldn't see.

There was the man who had given him the armlet that he could still feel squeezing into his bicep. He was bent over the wooden back of a pew, his spine contorted and his mouth hanging open.

There was Saria, dead for the second time. What she grasped for was obvious. One hand lay on her stomach, and the other pointed towards her deceased husband.

He didn't see Fi.

The cousin was tangled in her gold dress, the bouquet she had been carrying scattered around her, all red roses and white lilies.

And there was him. His own body slumped and curled on the floor.

He looked horribly small.

Zelda was very close to him, her white dress exploding around her in petals of snow and red. Her face was deathly pale and wax-like, her once rosy cheeks hollow and her eyes shadowed. She looked like she had been dead and drying for a couple days instead of just hours.

As Link watched, her eyes fluttered open, revealing sad blue eyes that were the same as always. She looked around like a sleeper waking from a long rest, and then she looked down at her chest, her eyes widening slightly. One hand creaked up and brushed against it, as if checking to make sure it was real. Her hand dropped, covered in clotted and gummy threads of blood, and she pushed herself over to Link's body with effort. Link watched with wide eyes as she caressed his body's face carefully, rocking him onto his back and holding both sides of his towards her. She leaned over and kissed his lips softly, smoothed his hair and brushed over his eyes, closing them all the way. A tear splashed onto the corpse's cheek and slid down, and Link made a little noise in the back of his throat.

She then looked up and saw Link standing there. She looked surprised, but not terribly so. She stood up with effort, wavering slightly on unsteady feet. She then swept over Link's body and approached him.

As she walked, a strange thing began to happen. A ghostly white gas started to seep out of her chest, turning into threads winding around her torso, then traveling up and down. When it reached her chin, she quickened her pace, her steps echoing out in the silent temple. Link waited for her, feeling like he was frozen in place.

She finally reached him, ivory splintering up her face and down her arms. Her mouth slightly ajar, she stared at him silently, her eyes soft. They darted down to his hand, dangling limply at his side, and she reached out and grabbed it carefully. Holding it with two hands, she guided it to the wound in her chest until it touched the white seeping out of her skin. It wrapped around his hand, warm and soft, and she smiled at him, a genuine smile that shone out from her face and made him feel a little bit fuller.

He felt himself being drawn somewhere, but he didn't fully realize it until his vision washed over with black. Then he was floating in an abyss, where only snatches of images and sounds and emotions came through to him-

A pale hand reaching out to him-

A quiet desperation that came across as a sort of pinkish, muddled orange-

But then he was drawn away, and the fractured, familiar face he saw twisted into an expression of grief-

Her eyes filled with tears-

And then a scream filled the empty plane he was leaving, because now that he was departing, she was going to be alone, alone, ALONE in this rift and she was going insane here, she needed to-

She needed to-

She needed-

NEEDED TO SEE-

The lonely, desperate wails still echoed in Link's ears as he started awake, a scream coming out of his own throat. The TV ran in the background, the tinny, fake laugh track of an old sitcom bouncing into the room and making him shiver. Link felt his forehead and wiped away the cold sweat he found there, then collapsed back onto the couch, breathing heavily.

This was the third night in a row he had had this dream, and already it was making him not want to go to bed at all. The end was different tonight – both yesterday and the day before had him catapulting out of bed as soon as he lost consciousness – but every single time, he died. He watched Zelda die.

He watched her bleed to death right in front of him, and even though he should have known what was about to happen, he never remembered.

The gods did have a sadistic streak.

His eyes closed again, but he stayed awake until the sun started to shine through the window, the frantic cries still bouncing through his head.

***starts imitating Chris Brown or whoever the fuck sings this song* It was only just a dream… Hehehe. Heh. FOOLED YOU, MAYBE.**

**Now, I am a Catholic that mainly goes to western, Christian ceremonies, so I modeled Link and Zelda's "wedding" after the kind I was most familiar with. I changed some stuff around, mostly because I was just writing whatever popped into my head at the moment, but otherwise, yeah – we've got the minister/priest, the white dress, the flowers, and maids of honor and all that shit.**

**This chapter has a lot of foreshadowing - some obvious, some not so obvious. Please, tell me what you think, and also tell me what YOU (YES, YOU) think will happen next or soon in the story. I always love hearing what people predict, because most of the time, you're wrong, but sometimes, people are DEAD. ON. And it makes me freak out. **

**Wow me, lovely readers. I **_**dare **_**you.**

**~Eva**


	14. Headaches

**Unlucky number thirteen I guess means writer's block, because I totally didn't know what I wanted to happen between the last thing and this next thing. BUT I GOT SOMETHING, and then I wrote it all today. So that's good.**

**What happened last time - a wedding dream thing that took up all chapter. They die at the end. Link gets presents that will be important later. Hooray.**

**I don't own Zelda.**

**...**

Link sagged against the counter, his eyes and head heavy.

He had had the dream again last night – the one with the wedding.

That seemed to be only one he had nowadays, and he dreaded going to bed every single night, fearing that he would see it

(Zelda dressed in white and red)

again. It still terrified him, and he never saw the same ending twice in a row. Sometimes, he just died, and that was that. Other times, he saw Zelda crying over his body, her body draped in satin and bloodstains, and he simply watched, unseen, and then a couple of times, he had been the one to weep, his lap full of Zelda's corpse, her skin waxy and her eyes empty, and it just never ended, did it-

He let out a sigh that turned into an exhausted yawn.

He needed to know what this dream meant before it drove him crazy. And he had a feeling he was halfway there. He couldn't remember little things, like whether Sheik said he was staying with Midna that night or where stuff was in the kitchen at Oak's, and his head hurt all the time. He couldn't focus on _anything_.

He was so close to going to the drug store and getting meds to help him get his eight hours, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to depend on something else to keep him awake or to put him to sleep; that's why he hadn't resorted to coffee and energy drinks to stay awake yet. He figured that was for when he got really desperate. And there was no way he was going to see a doctor over this – he hated doctors, he hated doctor's offices, and – just _no_.

Speaking of drugs…

"If anyone's got any illegal drugs, hide 'em!" Kaefi shouted over the murmurs in the diner. The purple haired man got a couple of evil glares from a group of mothers sitting by the door with their toddlers and an equal number of snorts from the counter of students. His loud yell sent a pang through Link's head, and he winced. "Cops are here."

Link looked up, his face blanching and the pain in his head forgotten; Midna, who was now back at work, swore violently under her breath, rushing into the kitchen without explanation.

The glass door rang open, letting in a blast of autumn air. Link's heart sank when he saw it was the same cop who had tampered with his phone when he had popped in for his statement weeks ago. His fingers idly traced the rectangular outline of his new phone in his pocket, but he stood his ground as the Twili walked into the diner in plainclothes. He saw another officer waiting in the cop car parked in the lot outside.

"Hello sir."" Kaefi walked up to the police officer, his hand outstretched for a handshake and all former disrespect forgotten. Blue skin met pale as the Twili's mouth cracked open in a slight smile. "What can I help you with?" Kaefi asked.

"Is there a Link Greene working here?" Despite the fact that he had already gone pale, Link's complexion whitened to a shade of chalk, and he almost pulled a Midna and escaped into the kitchen before the cop could see him. Before he could, Kaefi hesitantly pointed back to where Link was standing behind the counter, cleaning up.

"Uh, yeah. He's right there. You're not going to be doing any arresting, are you?" he tried to joke; uneasiness still sluiced through his voice.

The Twili's smile split wider, and he shook his head, his orange eyes fixed on Link's face. "No, nothing like that. This won't take long."

He walked over easily, then planted himself in a stool right in front of Link. Link stared at him wordlessly, his headache increasing and a pit of nausea rising in his stomach.

"What do you want?" he finally said, looking down and mechanically wiping the counter even though it was now clean. He could see his tired face in the shiny stone, and he saw the Twili watching him.

"What do you know about a Mido and Saria Kiri?"

Link's breath caught in his throat for a moment, but it steadied out quickly. He looked up.

"I know they were killed. It was on the news," he said flatly.

"Did you know them beforehand?"

"Barely." Link's heart pounded frantically in his ears, and he felt sweat break out on his palms. He didn't want to lie, because that looked suspicious by itself, but then the truth also couldn't be told – what could he do without incriminating himself?

"And may I ask how you knew them?"

"I got in a fender-bender with them a couple of days before they… you know," he said uncomfortably. His eyes shifted away from the stare of the cop when he saw a flash of triumph.

"Oh dear… Was anyone hurt?" His soft voice was filled with mock pity and concern.

"No. Well, I got a bloody nose, but nothing serious happened. It was my fault, and I was going to pay them for damages, but then Saria came and said they had taken care of it and didn't need my money. That's all that happened," Link babbled out quickly, watching the cops face for any flicker of understanding. He saw none.

"I see…" the cop purred, nodding. "How… convenient… I also know that you were found lurking around the dump site of Mrs. Kiri's body. Can you explain that to me?"

Link's face tightened in anger, and, planting both hands on the counter and leaning forward, he snarled at the cop, "Look, I know what you're trying to do. You and that bitch Spears are trying to make me look guilty, but I didn't do anything wrong – I didn't touch Zelda, I didn't touch the Kiris, and I'm sick of you people badgering me like I did. Now if you'll excuse me, I have customers to attend to and a really bad migraine, so fuck off, you bastard. I'm not in the mood."

The diner seemed to go silent, and Link felt several pairs of eyes on him, even though he had done his best to keep his tirade at a whisper. His face paled, and he drew back and settled on his heels, watching to see what the cop would do. Already, a cold pit of worry had settled in his stomach, and he regretted letting his temper go.

A mask of fury descended on the Twili's face, and that was all Link saw before a fist smashed into his mouth to assorted cries of surprise.

He stumbled backwards into the wall, cupping a split lip in open-mouthed shock. Pain reverberated throughout his jaw and head, and he slid to the floor behind the counter, blood dripping off his chin. He heard the bell over the door ring as the policeman exited the building, and then Kaefi was peering over the counter, his red eyes huge.

"Mother Farore…" he muttered, and he ran around and quickly helped Link stagger into a standing position. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Link slurred out, the sound muffled from the hand over his mouth. "Yeah, I'm fine," he repeated. The door to the kitchen swung open, and there was Midna, who had missed everything.

"Hey, why'd you leave so fast?" Kaefi asked while he grabbed Link some napkins to mop up the blood falling freely from his face.

"… I recognized that cop."

Kaefi excused himself to go check on the customers and assure them that everything was alright. Link pressed the wad of white to his lip, staring at Midna curiously.

"What's his name?" he managed to get out. Her upper lip curled in disgust.

"Zant," she sneered. "I went out with him back in high school and beginning of college. Dumped him because he got in a fight and nearly killed a guy." She shook her head. "And now, he's a cop. Looks like he's still got a good case of the crazies though." Her hands fisted on her hips, and she fixed Link with a concerned stare, her eyes flicking over his face. "So, do you need some ice?"

"Yeah, ice would be nice," Link nodded.

While Midna was gone, an old man came up to him. His eyes behind his glasses were wide with concern.

"My son is a lawyer if you want to press charges," he murmured. Link looked at him softly, then shook his head.

"I don't think that's such a good idea. Thanks anyway though." He tried to smile, but it hurt and started to bleed again, so Link just nodded at the elderly man and pressed the bundle of napkins back on his face. He mumbled something Link couldn't hear, then walked out into the bright sunshine.

"Ice," Midna said, dropping a sliver down the back of Link's shirt. He jumped and shivered, turning around to see a tied off plastic baggy filled with the stuff. "Here you go, Mr. Sunshine," she said cheerfully.

Link took it and wrapped it in the napkins before holding it to his face again. As it numbed, he could feel it beginning to swell. He was going to have a nice fat lip to remember this incident for at least a couple days.

"Just stay here, I've got your tables for now," Midna said, clapping Link's shoulder and then sashaying off to the table full of mothers, who were now chattering away about what had just happened right in front of them and the others just wouldn't believe it would they and that poor waiter but you know I think he had it coming-

Link's eyes fell shut as he turned around, propping himself up on the counter with the makeshift ice pack still held against his face.

…

The drawer was pulled open, wrinkled hands scrabbling for whatever was inside. The scraping of metal against wood rang in Link's ears as he watched. There was a sigh of relief as something that gleamed and sparkled red was pulled from the back of the drawer. The worn hands grasped it, trembling, and then they moved, running and stumbling out of the room.

Link followed whoever it was, seeing the flash of a bald head in a mirror, hearing a heavy weight slam against the ground with every step the person took-

(underground)

(WON'T FIND IT THERE)

The person nearly fell down a flight of stairs, and when they reached the bottom, the person rushed out the door and fell to their knees by the corner of their house. A thick circlet of bronze and ruby was tossed to the side

(the same one that hugged his arm during the wedding and then the murder)

the crimson gem glinting in the moonlight as the man started to dig into the rocky soil with his fingers, tearing away skin and grass in chunks-

…

A gentle swat met the back of his head, and Link started awake with a yelp.

"Okay, now you're just taking advantage of my kindness," Midna said, fake exasperation dripping from her voice. "Get up sleepyhead, and get to work before Maple comes to check on us."

Link was still reeling a little bit from the sudden vision

(at least it wasn't the wedding)

but he still got up and went about his business, turning over the image of a flashing bracelet in his head over and over and over.

It made little sense, but Link was now terrified to sleep that night. He had a feeling what he would witness wouldn't be pleasant.

...

**Oh Link, if only you knew...**

**I have gotten a couple of reviews saying that what's happening is confusing. I guess this is intentional, because as stated above, Link has no idea what's going on either. I promise, there's going to be a turning point where everything will make sense, and it's coming soon. Please, just hang in there :) I have everything mapped out in my head, so sometimes it's hard to tell what's confusing, because it all makes total sense to me. Thanks for your honesty.**

**Also, thanks to Reyser and Zakar, two new reviewers :) Muchas gracias, you two.**

**And if you're looking for something dark to read, go check out One Hazy Morn over on my profile. It's rated M (for good reason), but if you don't mind that, then pop on over and give it a go. **

**Hugs and bumps,**

**~Eva**


	15. The Curtain is Drawn

**Sup, mah bitches. Today marks the third day I have stayed home from school, and I am finally going back tomorrow, because I am over my minor illness. YAY OH MY GOD, I HAVE SO MUCH MAKE-UP WORK TO DO. I know I've whined about this over on some of my other ANs, but Jesus. There's just SO MUCH OF IT.**

**Okay, enough of my academic problems. Fifteenth installation of SNM - read it, (hopefully) love it, (again, hopefully) review it.**

**I don't own Zelda.**

* * *

Link drummed his fingers on the counter back at the shared house, staring at the clock.

It was now two o' clock in the morning, and he was officially exhausted. His head was pounding, and it felt like his eyelids were lead weights, just about to drop the curtain over his sagging eyes to start the show again the next day-

But he refused to fall asleep. He did not want to see what happened to the man next. Something awful was going to occur, and no way, NO WAY was he going to be the sole witness this time.

He sat up straighter, staring at the green clock on the stove until the digital numbers blurred together. Two oh five.

He spun around, looking at the empty house behind him. Midna and Sheik were back at the former's apartment – there were no sudden trysts to disturb his silent vigil. He slowly spun back around to look at the notebook he had been scribbling in to try and stay alert. Half of the page was taken up by a web of written names and connecting lines. The other half was covered by an absent minded sketch of a girl in a white dress with no face and long, dark hair. She had been cut through by angry slashes of pencil, pressed into the page so hard that the page was almost rent in two.

Link tore his eyes away, then stared back at the useful half of the page. The more he looked at it, the more it didn't seem useful. There were just too many blank spaces.

There was the ripping sound of paper being torn in two, and then it sailed into the trashcan at the end of the counter with an angry sigh.

He was beyond pissed. Blame the lack of sleep; blame the fact that he had gotten nailed in the face earlier; blame the fact that he couldn't sleep without dreaming these awful awful things and HE STILL HAD NO ANSWERS-

Link closed his eyes and seethed silently, not breaking the quiet that had fallen inside the near empty house.

When he opened them, he fell backwards with a yelp. He crashed against the floor with a groan as a dull pain echoed up and down his spine. He looked warily up at the massive wolf cramped onto his kitchen counter.

"What do you want?" he said irritably. The wolf panted, the corners of its doggy mouth up in a smile. It jumped off the counter, then paced a circle around where Link had fallen on the floor. Its claws clicked on the tile, and Link could detect the faint odor of wet dog wafting off the beast and its shiny fur.

When he tried to sit up, the wolf's demeanor took a turn for bipolar. It snarled at him, its teeth bared and its black lips lifted to show off sparkling canines that looked plenty sharp. Link cringed and shrank back into the floor, his heart hammering against his chest.

_It's not real… It's not real…_ he kept repeating to himself in his mind. _A hallucination cannot keep you on the ground._

So Link started to sit up again.

The wolf's paws planted on his shoulders and slammed him back to the ground before he could even tell what was happening. As soon as the spots stopped swimming in front of his eyes, Link swore loudly, straining to sit up against the wolf's weight. It leaned over, its hackles raised into intimidating peaks, and it growled right in his face until he stopped struggling. Blue met blue, and the wolf's eyes flashed angrily.

[DOWN. STAY DOWN.]

"So someone thinks they're alpha, huh?" Link said in what he hoped was a calm voice. It probably shook too much to be threatening. "Look, if your goal was to scare the daylights out of me, you've officially earned the right to say you did. Just please, let me up."

The wolf's eyes narrowed slightly, and Link quit talking, his own eyes wide as its snout drifted towards his head.

[SLEEP.]

It was as if a switch had been hit with that one word, and Link started to thrash under the beast.

"No! No! I won't, I won't! You can't make me!" He was almost on the verge of a temper tantrum, his voice high and hysterical as he screamed at the animal.

[SORRY. NEED TO SEE. NEED TO SEE TO HELP.]

"Who is this helping!?" he shrieked. "I can't get to them in time! I don't even know their names!"

[SORRY.]

And the wolf's nose brushed against his forehead. A warm, tingling sensation rushed throughout his body, and Link went still, his eyes falling shut and his head tilting to the side. The wolf pulled away, its tail still and its shoulders slumped. He got off of Link, and then slunk over to his side, its tail between its legs.

There it sat watch over the body in the now silent house.

…

Even if his body was silent, his mind still wailed ceaselessly, screaming in terror as a scene burst into life around him. He saw things as someone else did.

He was inside their head.

(WAKE UP I NEED TO WAKE UP)

{I need to disappear}

The thought, different from his own, didn't come floating by him. Rather, it was just something that he felt come to him, even though he didn't think it. The voice that he felt speak the words – no, not the words, more like the echoes of the words that he could_ just_ catch, just barely – was rumbling and deep, sad and exhausted, and he watched as the person looked in the mirror they were looking in. He saw only snatches of the person as they looked over themselves, their eyes darting over features they were used to and didn't need to linger on. He saw deep blue, sapphire eyes that glinted at themselves, set in a dark, haggard face. The lights were dim, but his hair still shone in the light, like molten and twisted platinum, even silver in some places. Images flashed by Link's eyes as the elderly man remembered how he looked when he was forty, twenty, two – the same brilliant eyes stayed with the man's face, sometimes sparkling in a smile, other times looking as they did now, nearly dead with worry and fear.

But one thing was clear to Link.

This was the man who called him son.

This was the man who gave him the bracelet.

This was the man who was to die next.

Link flinched back at this realization, but the man's face in the mirror didn't falter or even move. He just continued to stare at himself. The echoes came again.

{no heir}

{no one to keep watch over the stone} the echoes mourned. {no one to die for the stone} The second thought came moments later, and then it dropped out of existence, almost like he didn't want to think about it.

{zelda and saria died for their pieces of the puzzle} Link started at the mention of Zelda's name, the movement sending ripples across the old man's mind. He shook his head, like he felt it that time, the sapphires disappearing behind curtains of skin, and he started to walk, pacing away from the mirror. His hands were deep in his pockets; Link felt something in the depths of it

(something cold)

that the man pushed out of his mind.

{SO YOUNG NOT FAIR} came the next thought, breaking across the old man's mind like a bright firework, complete with the deafening sound. One hand came up to cover his mouth as he walked; he could feel the wrinkles next to his lips. Link watched, silent now as he tried to catch the next thoughts.

{are they safe?} Images of the necklace and a book, old and weathered, flashed in front of the old man, then a picture of the front of his house came, a corner of it shining dimly in his memory. {is it SAFE?} the echo repeated

(as echoes are wont to do)

the last word stretching on for infinity.

{no one to die for the stone} the thought came again, resurfacing with a glaze of grief. A bright splash of red guilt also colored the words. It was pushed away again, and Link watched it go, detached curiosity now wondering what that meant.

(something cold and something metal)

(no)

(he couldn't)

(he wouldn't)

Detachment turned to horror. The old man sat on a chair heavily, his breath whooshing out of his lungs like he was savoring the way it played over his tongue and brushed past his teeth.

{breathed a million times}

{gonna stop soon anyway}

{HE will come for me}

That one word was laced with so much dread and fear it made Link's own heart rate jump up a little. The old man had it worse; he gasped as his heart sputtered and stumbled into a faster gait, as if trying to pump a thousand more times before it expired.

Because now the cold and the metal sat on his lap, black and shiny

(as guns are wont to be)

and loaded.

{just one bullet}

{all it would take}

(NO NO NO NO NO!)

{i'd spill everything i'd tell him everything he needed to know}

{only way to keep my piece safe}

(NO PLEASE LET ME OUT)

The old man sighed, his hand shaking as he hefted the pistol in his hand. He didn't even know what make or what kind it was – he had just bought it today, for this express purpose.

Link shrieked and wailed, throwing himself against the borders of the old man's mind to try and escape.

{darunia you always were a coward}

(NO PLEASE YOU AREN'T YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE OH GODS PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME WATCH)

{bullets can't stop HIM}

{but they can slow HIM down}

Resolve tinted this nearly final echo a soft blue, and Link went silent, closed his eyes along with the old man as the gun came up, and the trigger was pulled. There was an eardrum bursting bang-

{a boy and his father shook hands, then embraced – the son blew away into dust that the man just couldn't catch, could only wait to follow}

That was the man's last thought.

Neither of them felt pain, but when Link creaked an eye open, he was alone inside the plane of the old man's mind – it had fled for good.

He let out a shaking breath, then another, and another. He was pretty sure he was hyperventilating, but he didn't have an actual body to check that, did he? The body he occupied was dead, and he wasn't getting out.

Link bit his bottom lip to pull back a scream, tasting blood as his lip split again. He had a feeling it would echo far too much.

Link let out another shaking breath, peeking out through the slits that the old man's eyes had opened into.

Surely someone would come here now? Surely this was the end of the dream or vision or whatever this torture was?

His questions were quickly answered as the door burst open. The sound of wood splintering was distant and far away, like both the body and the door were underwater. Link was stuck in the body, which he could still feel was slumped awkwardly in the chair, one leg at a strange angle, the other tucked under the chair. He couldn't see or feel the gun. It must have fallen on the floor. Link watched through hooded, dead eyes as the shadowed, hook-nosed man

(that's the killer)

(he was waiting and watching. he was there all along)

erupted into the room in a hazy blur. The shout that came from his throat was loud and cracked, two tones right after each other, like Link was seeing two different moments of the scream. Time was skipping along too fast.

(time means nothing when you're dead)

Link watched as the man took out a red can that stank of gas. It soaked behind the man like a slug's trail as he walked all around the house with it, then another one, and then another one. When only half was left of the third, the man dumped it over the corpse still splayed in the chair. The acrid smell made Link's eyes water and his throat burn.

The murderer held up a match to the old man's glassy eyes, and now Link was finally, blessedly out of the corpse's mind. He watched as the flame flickered brightly in the eyes he thought looked so much like precious stones. Now they were just glassy and clouded with death. The old man's mouth hung open, and Link could see the damage the single bullet had done to the chair and the wall behind it. He didn't want to see the back of the man's head.

With one final muttered curse, the murderer threw the match onto the old man's corpse. It burst into hungry flames that quickly spread around the room, around the house in a starving inferno. The man seemed unconcerned that his entire world had just exploded around him. He murmured words of encouragement, the flames growing higher, growing hotter at his insistence. When he was satisfied, the fire gave him room to pass, moving out of the way from his hands like he was brushing curtains aside or opening doors. He was gone without another word, his anger seething as hot as the fire.

(ONLY ONE MORE CHANCE LEFT)

This thought cracked across the abyss of flames, heavy with fury and desperation, along with a picture of golden light shining on a hand. And then he was gone, but still there. He was just outside.

Link felt the heat, but not the pain as the fire danced around him. He was stuck staring at the old man's blazing body. Clothes smoldered and flesh burned. Eyes melted and features became unrecognizable, blackened. He felt himself swaying, felt himself becoming sick, but he just couldn't look away…

(not a coward)

A cold hand curled around his and started to pull him out of the inferno, away from the old man's mannequin like body

(it melted like plastic)

and out the door.

Link collapsed onto the grass on his knees. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw someone digging into the soil by the corner of the foundation, hunched over and ripping away the earth with muffled words of power and bare hands.

"Enh…"

Link looked up at Zelda, who stared solemnly back at him, her pretty face streaked with ash. She looked much the same as she had before – white dress, hair down and tangled, eyes blue and lips red with blood.

"Eh's ohhay…" With this, she held up a hand. Her heart still rested there, beating a vicious, wet red. He gasped and jolted away from it, cringing. He heard her sigh, then felt her empty hand card through his hair. Her lips pressed against his with one last strangled apology-

-and he was back on the kitchen floor, soaked in sweat and breathing like he had just finished running the marathon. The wolf still sat next to him, looking down at him with a curious tilt to its massive, furred head. Its eyes glinted once again with that spark that was far too human.

[YOU SEE FIRE?]

Link looked wearily at it, then looked back to see that the sun was shining through the windows of the living room. He turned back to the beast, who still watched him, its tail beating out a drum solo on the floor.

"Yes, I saw a fire," he answered, his voice cracked and hoarse. His face twisted up when he heard it, and he struggled to sit up. The wolf came to his aid, standing beside him and letting him use its body like a stepping stool. Link finally was on his feet, and he groaned when he saw the clock on the stove. 8:00 am – two hours after the diner had opened.

"Farore… Maple's going to kill me. Or fire me." Link dragged a hand down his face and looked at the wolf, who now looked up at him with sad blue eyes.

[SAW WHAT COULD HAPPEN]

"So that hasn't happened yet?"

The wolf seemed to shrug as much as it could shrug. [MAY HAPPEN. MAY NOT]

"So wait… the old man's not going to kill himself?" Link asked, hope blooming in his chest.

[NO ONE TO DIE FOR THE STONE] the wolf barked, offering no other answers. Link groaned.

"So he is?"

[NO ONE TO DIE FOR THE STONE]

"What?"

The wolf looked peeved - well, as much as a dog can look peeved. [NO ONE TO DIE FOR THE STONE]

Link grunted angrily. "That gives me nothing to go– hey, where'd you go?"

For the wolf had vanished without a trace; no cloud of fairy dust, no poof. It only left the faintest whiff of wet dog behind.

* * *

**See, because last time, Link saw what _could have_ happened (on a really surreal level in that instance) before he saw what _actually_ happened, but then things changed because Saria came to see him... THERE ARE PATTERNS PEOPLE, I SWEAR I'VE THOUGHT THIS THROUGH. **

**Lemme know what you think, because you know. Reviews can let you do that. **

**Hugs and bumps,**

**~Eva**


	16. Inquiring Minds Want to Know

**Bleargh. Short chapter. Setting up for something next chapter, and I promise, that one's going to be long.**

**Last time: Link saw the man who has the Goron Ruby (if you didn't figure that out - then now you know) commit suicide before his piece was apparently stolen. However, the wolf who forced Link to have the dream says that this has not happened yet, so Link has a chance to stop him or at least get the ruby before he dies.**

**I don't own Zelda.**

…

The look on Maple's face was a mixture between anger and relief when Link walked into the diner two and a half hours late.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up."

Link cringed a little bit at the flat tone to her voice. The small number of patrons in the diner stirred slightly, their interest piqued; most of them were old folks waiting to see what was going to happen to the tired looking waiter. The rest just looked uncomfortable.

"Maple, I'm really sorry," Link said. "I had a really bad night, and I slept through my alarm."

"And your phone? We tried calling you. A lot." Flabby, veined arms folded tightly together, the old woman's brow wrinkling in disapproval.

"Yeah, that too," Link finally said after a moment of hesitant contemplation. "I'm really sorry," he repeated lamely. Maple shook her head, then walked back into the kitchen without another word, the door swinging shut behind her. The diners turned back to whatever had held their attention before, their disappointment palpable. The cold silence Maple had left behind her was enough to make Link shiver, and the world shivered around him, with him.

He didn't think he had ever felt this sickened by a nightmare, or had ever felt this exhausted after sleeping. The world sputtered and seemed too bright-

(blink)

After the brief flash of darkness, Link had to step back a little bit to steady himself, and he swept a wary look over the diner, wondering if it was safe to sit down and catch his breath and rest his eyes. He didn't know if he should stay here or just go home. He didn't know if he wanted to work the rest of the day with Maple breathing down his neck and making him feel guilty; he could do that well enough by himself, thank you very much if you please. And she had to have gotten someone to take his shift after the first hour-

His answer, Anju, crept out not a moment after he thought that, looking at Link nervously. "Hey," she said in a soft voice. "She called me in to fill in for you… Sorry I took your shift."

"It's no problem," Link mumbled, still standing awkwardly in the way of the door. The door opened behind him with a small tinkle, and a woman with dark hair swept by him, her perfume wafting down to his nose and making his head spin slightly. Her shoulder crashed into his, knocking him off balance, but she didn't apologize, only continued to walk through the diner, heels clicking and head of shining hair held high.

Anju started talking again after shooting the woman a nasty look and _tsking_ at her under her breath. "Maple and Midna were really worried about you, you know. They thought you got in some sort of trouble." She sounded curious, the underlying question tinged with excitement.

(she wouldn't even believe me if I told her)

"I wasn't. I was just sleeping," Link said absently, distantly, trying to ignore the buzzing in his head. The heady smell of the woman's perfume

(something like roses)

was still caught in Link's nose, and he shot a look over at the woman now sitting in a booth by herself, glancing over the menu with a bored expression on her attractive face. Her curly hair was such a dark shade of black it glimmered blue in the fluorescent lights of the diner, and her pale skin seemed to shine softly as well. His breath stuck in his throat for a second as he recognized her-

(blink)

(the world wavered)

(the world shifted)

_(changed)_

The third woman in the photo with Saria and Zelda-

She was right in front of him.

…

**Opinions seem to be ranged with how confusing this is getting – please, if you are on the "I have no idea what the hell is going on" end of the spectrum, please, please mention specific things that confuse you so I can try and make those clearer. When you say the whole thing is confusing, that's hard to fix. Is it the writing? Is it the dreams? Or is it why things keep happening? I can try and fix the first two by editing more carefully and making things less surreal, but if it's the last one, I cannot help you without spoiling things. Just bear with me for a few more chapters. The turning point is nigh.**

**I promise, when everything comes together, it should be worth it.**

**Hugs and bumps,**

**~Eva**


	17. Sweetheart

**Last time – Maple was super pissed that Link came in two hours late, and then he saw the final woman who was in the photograph with Saria and Zelda. You know, the one with the black hair.**

**Warning for this chapter: might toe the line between T and M. Nothing is described, everything is left ambiguous, but still. Read at your own risk if situations of a sexual (and violent) nature bother you.**

**I don't own Zelda.**

…

"Link, you still with me?"

Link shook his head when he noticed Anju snapping her fingers in front of his nose, a concerned look on her face.

"Are you back, space cadet?" she said, a hint of lightness to her voice to hide her worry. "You look awful – like, sick awful. Are you sure you don't have what Midna had?" Before he could even answer, Anju was off again. "Why don't you go home and rest? We've got everything handled over here, promise."

"No!" Link almost clapped a hand over his mouth when he noticed how loudly his voice had exploded out into the quiet diner. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the dark-haired woman raise her head, giving him what he imagined to be a strange look before going back to perusing the menu. He let out a breath through his nose, closing his eyes for a second. "I'm fine. I promise. I can work today," he said in a short, strangled voice. He saw a flash of a grey tail, wagging happily next to him. A satisfied snort reached his ears, but he ignored it.

Anju's eyes narrowed, not entirely convinced, but after a moment of scrutiny, she shrugged, grabbing his apron from the shelf under the counter and tossing it to him.

"Fine then; hop to it, I guess. Get the chick that just came in, alright?" She looked him over one last time, her face wrinkled in confusion as she sniffed. "Can't imagine why you even got out of bed this morning," she finally said, shaking her head and walking away.

Link felt a more ominous bend to the words than Anju probably intended.

He fumbled to tie the apron around his waist, and he finally just gave up, tossing it over the counter to be picked up later. He kept the pad of paper and pen, then finally walked over to the dark-haired woman.

He had absolutely no idea how to broach the questions he wanted to ask her. He wanted – no, he _needed _answers, and he knew that she had to know something. Otherwise, why would she be in the picture with Zelda and Saria? They seemed to all share that common thread of whatever it was they were protecting…

Maybe she could tell him what it was. Maybe she knew everything, why he was having bad dreams and why he couldn't sleep and what was the dog even doing here-

(saria wouldn't tell not even to save her own baby would this lady really tell _you_?)

He groaned at the realization, feeling his hope drop out of the bottom of his feet with a sucking feeling.

It was like he was a dying man in a desert, and suddenly here was a glass of water; cold, beaded with condensation and ready to sate his thirst and save him. The only problem was it was just out of his reach – and he knew he could maybe get to it. Maybe, if he stretched just a little farther…

But he couldn't. He was spread too thin, too tired, too worn, and there were holes threatening to break open if he stretched just a little bit more and of he did that, then _**SNAP**_-

It was enough to make him want to scream. What came out instead was a mostly pleasant, "how are you today, ma'am?"

" Oh, I'm good. How are you, cutie?" She shot him a dazzling grin that looked too white to be real. It almost hurt Link's eyes. He blinked at her, and then smiled weakly back. Her voice, low-pitched and almost melodious to his exhausted brain, set off a soft alarm bell and threw up a red flag. There was the clicking of claws on tile as the beast paced around him, but then it was gone. The wolf's satisfaction remained.

[WATCH]

"I'm fine," he managed to choke out in a relatively normal voice. With a crackling stab of pain, a voice started to edge its way into his mind, its panic making him feel uneasy, like he should run for the hills right now and not look back. Its screams rose and fell in time with the pounding of his head. The shrieks jumped and skipped, and then words broke through the mental static.

{there's a boy…} The voice trailed off uneasily, uncertainly, and then he heard it bristle, snapping out and lash against whatever incited it. {saria told me about him! he's zelda's friend!}

It cracked and slurred over the last word before it cut off like a bad transmission from an old timey radio, leaving Link alone in his mind and reeling slightly. Link shook his head, trying to push it out of his head and keep a straight face. If the woman noticed, she said nothing, only continued to smile sweetly at him.

"So what can I get for you today?" He looked back up at the woman, tearing his eyes away from his pad of paper; she was staring at him with an expression in her eyes that he really couldn't place. Slowly, her eyelids lowered and fluttered, and her full mouth curved up into a teasing, closemouthed smile.

"I just need a coffee. Maybe a couple of sugars for good measure." One red-lacquered fingernail tapped slowly on the table, keeping time to the beat of some invisible metronome that only she could hear. Link blinked at her, finally starting to grasp the flirting tone in her voice.

"Sugar's right there." Internally rolling his eyes, he pointed at the little yellow, pink and white packets that someone had littered the opposite end of the table with. When Kaefi got here, he would probably have a panic attack if someone didn't clean it up – he got so OCD about how the tables looked, and it drove the rest of them insane. Heaven forbid that a white sugar packet was mixed in with the Sweet&Low.

She turned slowly to look at the messy display, then turned back to him without even a hint of guile in her blue eyes.

"Aw, but that just isn't as special as the sweet thing I'm seeing right in front of me." She pouted prettily, moving closer to him while she fiddled with the collar of her shirt. Which seemed to plunge a little too far down to be considered modest.

(is she serious)

Link swallowed as his eyes darted to the cleavage that _popped_ out of her blouse, then flicked back up to her face. Judging by the knowing smirk twisting her pale features, she had noticed. His own face flushed red, all the way up to the points of his ears.

"So yeah. Coffee. I can get that for you," he said, probably louder than he needed to. The pad of paper smacked shut, the page blank.

"Thanks, Blondie…" she purred, settling back into her booth with a satisfied smugness radiating from her rounded figure. Link shook his head to clear his thoughts, then scrambled back into the kitchen to get the coffee.

…

It was when he had just sat the cup of coffee down on the table that he heard the panicked voice scream again. It was accompanied by a harsh stab of pain that ached its way into his temples. Link's eyes screwed shut, and his hand slammed onto the table to keep himself steady while he felt the world start to sway around him again. Porcelain rattled against metal.

{he knows-} the voice hissed out. It sounded like it had been crying, made thick with sadness and guilt.

{HE KNOWS-} It echoed itself this time with a loud scream, and then it kept going and then he realized just how awfully similar the voice sounded to the dark-haired woman's-

{ISN'T THAT ENOUGH JUST PLEASE DON'T TOUCH ME AGAIN}

"Is something wrong? Are you okay?" the woman said, her head cocking to the side like a curious bird's as she stared at him, her eyes now filled with concern instead of want. Link opened his eyes and blinked rapidly to try and get rid of the grey spots that had started to pulse into the corners of his vision. He swallowed, feeling gorge rise in the back of his throat and hot saliva flood his mouth.

"No, I don't think I am, ma'am," he managed to gasp out before he turned away and sped for the men's room. He burst his way into the empty handicapped stall before falling to his knees and emptying the meager contents of his stomach into the toilet. One arm came up to brace against the smooth seat as he shuddered and retched.

He panted, feeling his stomach clench against the smell; he nearly threw up again. Link held his breath and pushed himself away from the toilet, feeling horribly unsteady, even this close to the ground. He collapsed against the brick wall and slid to the ground, panting and wiping away the nasty taste of sick off his lips.

For the next couple of minutes, he just focused on breathing – in and out and not up. There was a pounding on the door.

"Link, are you okay?" It was Midna. He opened his mouth to try and answer, but his voice was gone. All that came out was a hiss and silent burp that tasted like rot.

His hand pressed against his stomach to try and help it recover; soon, it only ached, and Link opened his eyes, quickly closing them when the bright lights of the bathroom made spots swim in front of his nose. He moaned under his breath without thinking, his head falling to the side. His hands clenched into fists, then relaxed as his limbs went numb and heavy. Grey faded in front of his face, then finally plunged him into black.

{NO STOP WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!} the voice shrieked one last time before he spiraled down, down, down-

…

Sobs filled the room, along with the wet, heavy smell of rotting cardboard. Link found himself staring down at a woman

(the dark haired woman)

_(the one that has the stone)_

_(stubborn bitch)_

who looked like she had been through hell and back. Her face was a sopping mess of tears and ruined, days old makeup. One of her cheeks was swollen and bruised a nasty purple and blue, and swollen cut on her forehead looked raw and infected. Her hair was tangled in his dark

(wait that's not right)

fist, pulling it back and exposing her pale throat. It worked and shifted as she gasped for breath in between sobs.

"I duh… I duh… I duh ha' it ay'ore!" she heaved out, slurring her words around what Link imagined to be a mess of broken teeth.

_Wrong answer._

She let out a hoarse scream as she was forced back into the tub of water.

(STOP IT OH MY GODS WHAT ARE YOU DOING)

The sudden silence held a biting, expectant edge as she thrashed and struggled, her wrists bleeding as they strained fruitlessly against thick plastic ties.

(stopitstopitstopitstopitstop it-)

After what seemed like an eternity, she was pulled back up, choking and retching up nothing but water. The woman collapsed forward, but she stayed on her knees, held up by the hand twisted into her hair. Her fit ended, a spate of heavy, labored sighs following the coughs.

_Do we really have to do this again, Ruto?_ he said, shaking her like a disobedient puppy that had been caught by the scruff of its neck. Ragdoll-like, she slumped again, unresponsive, her eyes half-lidded, glassy things. He let out an angry sigh, then released his hold on her scalp. She fell to the side and slammed against concrete with a _thunk_, sprawled out in a mess of water and old blood.

(my voice isn't that deep I wouldn't do that please stop I don't want to do this-)

She moaned, her legs bending and curling up closer to her chest and her head tilting into the floor. He watched her, his nose wrinkling in distaste.

_(WHY WON'T THEY EVER SAY ANYTHING) _For the first time, Link caught hints of pictures materializing in the man's mind, more than he had time to count they whipped by so fast-

(a gerudo and an old man and Zelda and Fi and Saria and Mido and another old man and more and more, repeating and stretching on forever-)

(and they won't ever say anything never never never just leave her alone please stop-)

He stepped closer to the fallen figure on the floor, kicking her onto her back with a soft grunt on his end and a sharp squeak on hers. Link would have bet that she had broken ribs. She coughed once she was finally resting on her back, looking up at him-

And then Link was suddenly looking up at the shadowed man and everything hurt, his throat, his eyes, his lungs, his sides, his hands and wrists and head and oh gods I JUST WANT TO DIE-

She had been here a week. She was left here

{a warehouse}

during the day, and he came around at night to ask her not so politely if she knew where it

{sapphires spazzing off fingers and emeralds rotting into dead flesh and books shedding their pages like thousands of papery wings}

was.

She never told.

She never would.

At least, she didn't think she would.

She couldn't, right?

_One last time. _

{let him not be lying}

_Where. Is it._

She looked up at him warily, her resolve steeling.

"I duhnt know," she lied. She lied through broken teeth, the words whistling out in bleeding, faltering sighs.

His eyes narrowed, golden slits that pierced through the dimness of this tiny room where she had been locked away for the past seven days. It felt like it had been forty – days, years, lifetimes, it didn't matter anymore.

All that mattered was that she didn't tell.

(TELL HIM WHAT?!)

She pulled at her bottom lip with her teeth, unbroken bones scraping along chapped skin as he regarded her with blatant, unguarded hatred. One foot came up and stomped down on her calf, snapping the bone easily. Her teeth nearly pierced her lip as she held back a screech of agony; it hissed and kissed its way out of her, far softer and less satisfying for both of them.

_Tell me! _he thundered, and she thought he sounded like a petulant child on the verge of a temper tantrum.

"I don't know," she said as clearly and as slowly as she could, a dull look creeping on her face to mask her pain.

{OH SWEET NAYRU THAT _HURTS_}

His face twisted in fury, but he seemed to calm himself down at the last second, his fists clenching and his forehead furrowing instead to show his frustration, always an open book.

He paced around her, looking down on her and appearing to think as he circled closer and closer, a bird of prey with a beak-like nose.

{heh, so what now, you stupid ugly vulture, what do you have up your sleeve now, huh?}

(don't tempt fate)

He squatted down beside her, scanning her briefly with a more relaxed look on his face before he rested a hand on her throat.

{… ?}

(he wouldn't he couldn't NO)

She tensed momentarily, the ache in her teeth flaring when her jaw clenched, but she relaxed as quickly as she could, keeping an impassive face fixed on the ceiling-

And then the hand started to trail down, down, down-

"No, stop… Get off of me," the woman bleated out as her hips were straddled and her shirt was torn away and heavy, heavy hands, heavy and cold as lead started to trace up and down her now naked sides, creeping under her bra and taking that too-

_YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT._

She felt so small and tiny and it hurt when he bit her and pinched her and OH MY GODS her leg it hurt when he pushed it aside-

_YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT._

He made her bleed and he bruised her, but this time, it was different, it hurt in a way that sunk all the way in and stained her very bones, both broken and unbroken and finally, she screamed, "OKAY, OKAY, YOU WIN, I'LL TELL I'LL TELL I'LL TELL!" just to make him stop, she wanted this all to STOP-

…

Link sucked in a horrified, choking gasp, his eyes bugging wide as he was finally ripped from the vision.

(there's a boy)

"Link!"

Midna was still calling for him.

"Link, are you okay?"

(there's a boy saria told me about he's zelda's friend)

(I'LL TELL)

There was suddenly hot breath on his ear, and he jerked away from it, letting out a small noise of surprise. He turned to see the wolf, its bulk cramped between the toilet and the wall. It stared at him, finally nudging his cheek with his snout and licking it in a bestial form of a comforting kiss. He felt the cold of its nose, but when he reached up to touch his cheek, it wasn't wet.

[STOP WHAT YOU SEE] it barked, finally padding out of the stall, stepping lightly over Link's legs before vanishing into thin air. Link jumped when more knocking came at the bathroom door.

"Link! I'm coming in there, okay?"

Midna walked inside cautiously, then stopped when she saw him sitting against the wall, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Hey. I didn't even know you got here."

"Yeah," he sighed. "Haven't been here for long."

"Well, you're going home. You're clearly sick, you look awful, and you are not going to be serving people food. Maple's orders."

Horror suddenly bloomed in Link's stomach, cold and heavy. "Wait, where's the lady I was serving?"

Midna had a quizzical look on her face, which Link knew did not bode well for him. "I didn't see anyone new when I walked over here. She must have left." She stepped further inside the bathroom and helped Link to his feet. "Alright, c'mon. You're going home. You need rest."

(I never want to sleep again if that's what I have to watch)

He followed Midna without protest, the words and images he had seen before spiraling around him along with the awful realization that he might not ever see the dark-haired woman before it was too late.

He was just about to walk out the door, his heart literally aching with guilt and terror when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned to see Anju holding something behind her back. She presented it to him with a quick explanation.

"She said she had to leave, but to tip that one waiter who got sick. Oh, and to give you this." Anju handed over a red rupee and a crumpled napkin with something written on it and something wrapped in it.

_Call me, cutie_

Below that, there was a scrawled phone number along with a messy smudge of lipstick-

A packet of sugar.

Link felt himself lighting up, his face turning into a small, pleased smile that soon morphed into a full on grin.

(will you stop what you've seen?)

Yes. Yes, he would, and yes, he could.

...

**Argh, I am not so happy about this chapter, but... whatever. I think the end is rushed, because I wanted to get this out and not leave it hanging on an epic cliffie for a couple weeks :P That would just be mean.**

**Quick explanation of what happened: Link seeing Ruto (did you catch her name?) triggered a vision of what would eventually happen to her. The circumstances surrounding how she was caught are not detailed, but if things progress as they do now, Ruto will end up eventually caving and telling the murderer about Link. Which is not good.**

**That's all you get for now, but WAIT. DON'T SHOOT. EVERYTHING'S GONNA MAKE SENSE SOON - Countdown til the turning point: 2 to 3 chapters from now. **

**Thanks to Shaveza, a new reviewer. And I totally forgot to mention this last time, but this story has received over a hundred reviews! Thanks to everyone who reads and follows and favorites and reviews. You make my day BRIGHT.**

**Hugs and bumps,**

**~Eva**


End file.
